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CATHARINE. 


BY 

y 

KEHEMIAH 'aDAMS, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF “AGKES AKD THE LITTLE KEY,” ‘‘EVENINGS WITH THE 
DOCTRINES,” ETC. 



S EVENT FI EDITION, 


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BOSTON: 

OOTJIL.X) .A.N'r) n. ijsr c a Ju iNy 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 

1869. 

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year i86q, by 
NEHEMIAH ADAMS, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


TO THE 


YOUNG LADIES OF MY CONGREGATION, 


FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF 

CATHARINE, 

AKD TO EVERY FATHER 


HAYING 


A DAUGHTER IN HEAVEN, 

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 


In tlic introduction to “ Agnes,” it is stated that the Lon- 
don publishers, of their own motion, sought and obtained 
peimission of the Eight Hon. and Eight Eev. Archibald 
Campbell, Bishop of London, (who had within a few years 
lost five children, and recently several of them at once,) to 
dedicate that book to him. Some, who knew the customs in 
such cases, suggested to the author that a letter of acknowl- 
edgment would be proper ; in sending which, a copy of the 
book “ Catharine ” was also forwarded. The following is 
the Bishop’s reply : — 


26 March, 1860 . 

My Bear Sir : — I scarcely know how to explain why 
I have delayed so long to answer your very kind letter, with 
the present of the Memoir of your beloved daughter. Believe 
me, I have read the touching account of her brief summons, and 
the beautiful words with which she assured you of her readiness 
to obey the Saviour’s call, with deep interest. How true it is, 
that in the record of the griefs of other Christian friends, we seem 
again to live over our own. Their sorrows and their comforts 
speak with force to our hearts, if we have ourselves been sufferers. 
Til is day, four years ago, I laid in the grave the eldest of the five 
dear children who were taken from us. Her name also was 
Catharine. She was but ten years old then, but she was a child 
who could not have failed, through her Saviour’s love, to develope 
• into such a woman as the Catharine of whom you write. What 
a blessed thought, that during the four years which have passed, 
she has been growing under her dear Saviour’s own immediate 
guidance, and that whatever she might have become on earth, 
she is far more now. 

This brotherhood of sorrows is a holy bond, which brings 
together those who only know of each other’s sufferings, and of 
the strength Christ gives to bear them. How does suffering, 
when received as from a loved F ather, make us sympathize with 
those called to like trials ; and how holy does the bond become 
which unites all mourners through their common Lord, and 
through them feehng that those they love are in his immediate 
presence. ^ * ^ * * ^ ^ 

Ever faithfully yours, 

A. C. LONDON. 


Key. Dr. Adams. 



CONTENTS. 


I. 

PAGE 

MORE THAN CONQUEROR, 9 


II. 

THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED, . . . 58 

III. 

THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED, ... 89 

IV. 

THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD, 119 

V. 

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY .... 144 



CATHAEINE. 




I. 

MORE THAN CONaUEROR. 


Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies? 

Yes, — hut not his: ’Tis death itself there dies. 

• Coleridge. 

She was not an infant — an unconscious sub- 
ject of grace. But the Saviour has led through 
a long sickness, and through death, a daughter 
of nineteen years, and has made her, and, those 
who loved and watched her, say. We are more 
than conquerors. To speak of Him, and not to 
gratify the fondness of parental love, to com- 
mend the Saviour of my child to other hearts 
and to obtain for Him the affections of those to 
whom He is able and willing to be all which He 
was to her, is the sole object of these pages. 


10 


CATHARINE. 


Listen, then, not to a parent’s partial tale con- 
cerning his child, nor concerning mental nor 
bodily suffering, but to the words of one who 
has seen how the presence of Christ, and love 
to Him, can fill the dying hours with the sweet- 
est peace, and even beauty, and the hearts of 
survivors with joy. 

Wishing to dwell chiefly on the last scenes 
of this dear child’s life, the reader will not be 
delayed by any biographical sketch. Nine 
years before her death, when she was between 
ten and eleven years of age, she gave the clear- 
est evidence that she was renewed by the Holy 
Spirit. We had since that time been made 
happy by the growing power of Christian prin- 
ciple in her conduct, the clearness and stead- 
fastness of her faith, her systematic endeavors 
to live a holy life, her deep regret when she 
had erred, and her resolute efforts to improve 
in every part of her character. 

Through a long sickness, with consumption, 
for two years and three months, she felt the 
soothing power of unfaltering Christian hope. 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


11 


which was evidently derived from a very clear 
perception of the way to be saved through 
Christ; and complete trust in the promises made 
to simple faith in him. 

He who gave me this child; and crowned my 
hopes and wishes by the manifest signs of his 
love towards her; merits from me a tribute of 
gratitude and praise to which I desire and 
expect that eternity itself may bear witness. 
They who read the story; which I am about to 
relate; of her last few dayS; and think what it 
must be for a father to see his child made com- 
petent to meet so intelligently and deliberately; 
and to overcome; the last enemy, and; in doing 
FO; helping to sustain and to comfort those w^ho 
loved her; will perceive that it is a gift from 
God whose value nothing can increase. Be- 
reavement and separation take nothing from it; 
but; on the contrary; they illustrate and enforce 
our obligations. For since we must needs die, 
and are as water that is spilled upon the ground; 
which cannot be gathered up agaim such a 
death as this amounts to positive happiness 


12 


CATHARINE. 


by the side of a contrasted experience in the 
joyless, hopeless death of a child, or friend. 
But without further preface, I proceed to the 
narrative. 

Never before had it fallen to my lot to bear 
that message to one who was sick, “ The Mas- 
ter is come, and calleth for thee.” In previous 
cases of deep, personal interest, this has been 
unnecessary. But in the present case there 
was a resolute purpose, and an expectation, of 
recovery, till within a week of dissolution, and, 
on our part, a belief that life might still be 
lengthened. Such cases involve nice questions 
of duty. Where the patient has evidently 
made timely preparation to die, it is needless 
to dispel that half illusion which seems to be 
one feature of consumption — an illusion 
which is so thin that we feel persuaded the 
patient sees through it, while, nevertheless, it 
serves all the purposes of hope. To take away 
that hope where no beneficial end is to be se- 
cured, is cruel. A mistaken, and somewhat 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


13 


morbid, sense of duty to tell the whole truth, 
and a conscientious but unenlightened fear of 
practising deception, sometimes lead friends to 
remove, from a sick person, that power which 
hope gives in sustaining the sickness, in pro- 
longing comfort, and in helping the gradual 
descent into the grave. When a sick person is 
resolute and hopeful, it is surprising to see how 
many annoyances of sickness are prevented or 
easily borne, and how life, and even cheerful- 
ness, may be indefinitely extended. But when 
hope is taken away, or, rather, when, instead of 
looking towards life with that instinctive love 
of it which God has implanted, we turn from 
the warm precincts of the cheerful day,” 
and look into the grave, it is affecting to see 
how the disease takes advantage of it, and suf- 
ferings ensue which would have been pre- 
vented by keeping up even the ambiguous 
thoughts of recovery. Sick people have re- 
flections and feelings which exert an influence 
upon them beyond our discernment, and which 

frequently need not our literal interpretations 
2 


14 


CATHARINE. 


of symptoms, and our exhortations, to make 
them more effectual. But where there is evi- 
dently no preparedness for death, and the pa- 
tient, we fear, is deceiving himself, no one who 
has suitable views of Christian duty will fail to 
impress him with the necessity of attending to 
the things which belong to his peace, even at 
considerable risk of abridging life. 

Waiting, therefore, for medical discernment 
to signify when the last possible effort to 
lengthen out the days of the sufferer had been 
made, one morning I received the intimation 
that those days would, in all probability, be 
but very few. After the physician had left the 
house, and I had sought help and strength from 
God, I lost no time, but took my place at the 
dear patient’s side, to make the announcement. 

God help those on whom he lays such duty. 
The hour had virtually c'ome in which father 
and child must part, and the father was to 
break that message to his child. But how 
could mortal strength endure the effort ? 

Before I left my room for hers, there came 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


15 


to my mind these words — “But now, thus 
saith the Lord that created thee, 0 Jacob, 
and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, 
for I have redeemed thee ; I have called thee 
by thy name ; thou art mine. When thou 
passest through the waters, I will be with 
thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not 
overflow thee ; when thou walkest through 
the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall 
the flame kindle upon thee.” Trusting in that 
promise, I sat down, as it were, over against 
the sepulchre, to prepare my child for her 
entrance into it, — nay, for her departure 
into heaven. 

The gradual arrival of the truth to her ap- 
prehension, through questions which she began 
to ask, and my answers to them, finally led her 
to inquire if I supposed she could not live long. 
I told her that the physician thought that 
she was extremely weak, and that we must not 
be surprised at any sudden event in her case. 
She said, without any change of countenance, 
“ Why, father, you surprise me ; I thought that 


16 


CATHARINE. 


I might get well ; is it possible that I cannot 
live long ? I have thought of recovering 
much more than of dying. . . It seems a long 
space to pass over between this and heaven^ in 
so short a time. I wonder how I can so sud- 
denly obtain all the feelings which I need for 
such a change.” These expressions I wrote 
down immediately after the interview. ‘ I told 
her, in reply, that she had been living at peace 
with God through his Son ; that it had hitherto 
been her duty to live, and to strive for it ; but 
now God had indicated his will concerning her, 
and she might be sure that God will always 
give us feelings suited to every condition in 
which he sees fit to place us. 

On seeing her again, towards evening, I found 
that the expression of her sick face — the 
weary, exhausted look of one grappling with 
a stronger power — had passed away, and, in 
exchange, there was peace, and even happiness. 
She began herself to say, “ When you told me 
this forenoon that I could not live, it surprised 
me ; but I have come to it now, and it is all 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


17 


right. Every thing is settled. I have nothing 
to do — no fear, no anxiety about any thing. 
More passages of -Scripture and verses of 
hymns have come to my mind to-day, than in 
all my sickness hitherto.” Wishes respecting 
some family arrangements were then ex- 
pressed, particularly with reference to the 
younger children, and these wishes were ut- 
tered in about the same tone and manner as 
though we were parting for a temporary ab- 
sence from each other. The mother of my 
youngest child had, at her death, given her in 
special charge to this daughter, and she wished 
to live that she might educate her. She made 
the transfer of her little trust with calmness, 
and then her “ Good night ” was uttered with 
a gentle playfulness, like that of her early 
days. 

Nor was her frame of mind an excitement, 
or a fictitious experience, to end with sleep. 
The next forenoon she renewed the conversa- 
tion. She said, “ In the night I awoke many 

times, and always with this thought — I am 
2 * 


18 


CATHARINE. 


not going to live. Instead of fear and dread, 
peace came with it. Names of Christ flowed 
in upon my mind ; and . once I awoke with 
these words in my thoughts — ‘ And there 
shall be no night there.’ Now I know that I 
am to die, I feel less nervous. I have a calm, 
unruffled feeling.” She expressed some nat- 
ural apprehensions, only, about the possibility 
of dissolution not having occurred when we 
should suppose that she was no more. I told 
her how kindly God had ordered it that we do 
not all die together, but one by one, the sur- 
vivors doing all that the departed would desire 
— which satisfied her, and removed her only 
fear. 

She asked lea've to make a request respect- 
ing her grave ; that, if any device were placed 
upon the stone, it might be of flowers, which 
had been such a joy and consolation to her in 
her sickness. She named the lily-of-the- valley 
and rose buds. “1 love the white flowers,” 
said she. “If you think best, let them be rep- 
resented in some simple way. . . One great 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 19 

desire which I have had was to assort some 
leaves of flowers into forms for you. As my 
bouquets fell to pieces^ I gathered the best 
petals^ and leaves, and sprigs, and I have them 
in a book;” which, at her request, I then 
reached for her. I turned the pages. The 
book was full of beautiful relics from tokens of 
remembrance which kind friends had sent to 
her, and among them were some curiously mot- 
tled, green and rose-colored, petals, which she 
had designed for a wreath, on the first page of 
the little herbarium, which it was her intention 
to prepare ; and then, with great hesitancy, 
and protesting their unworthiness, she repeated 
these simple lines, which she had composed for 
an inscription within the wreath. I wrote 
them down from her lips : 

To MY Father. 

These flowers, which gave me such comfort and hope, 

I pressed, in my sickness, for you ; 

Accept them, though faded ; they never wull droop ; 

And believe that my heart is there too. 


They who showered these tokens of their 


20 


CATHARINE. 


regard upon her, will be pleased to know that 
their gifts did not wholly perish, but that they 
will constitute an abiding memorial of her 
friends, as well as of her. 

“ I know,” she continued, “ that I am a great 
sinner; but I also believe that my sins are 
washed away by the blood of Christ.” The 
way of justification by faith was clear to her 
mind She knew whom she believed, and was 
persuaded that he was able to keep that which 
she had committed to him against that day. 

In her whispering voice, which disease had 
for some time so nearly hushed, she said, “ I 
shall sing in heaven.” Her voice had been the 
charm of many a pleasant circle. But she 
added, “ I shall no more sing — 

‘ rm a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger ; 

I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.’ ” 

And in a moment she added, — 

“ Of that country to which I am going. 

My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light,” 

“Some people,” she said, “wish to die in 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


21 


order to get rid of pain. What a motive ! 
I am afraid that sometimes they get rid of it 
only to renew it. There was — ” And here 
she checked herself, saying, “ But I will not 
mention any name,” a feeling of charitableness 
and tenderness coming over her, as though she 
might be thought to have judged a dying per- 
son harshly. 

The day before she died, as I was spending 
the Sabbath forenoon by her, she breathed out 
these words: — 

“ O, how soft that bed must be, 

Made in sickness, Lord, by thee ! 

And that rest, how soft and sweet. 

Where J esus and the sufferer meet ! ** 

In almost the same breath, she said, O, see 
that beautiful yellow,” — directing my atten- 
tion to a sprig of acacia in a bunch of flowers; 
all showing that her religious feelings were 
not raptures, but flowed along upon a level 
with her natural delight at beautiful objects. 
To illustrate this, I have mentioned several of 
the incidents already related. 


22 


CATHARINE . 


She spoke of a young friend, who has much 
that the world gives its votaries to enhance 
her prospects in this life. I said, “Would you 
exchange conditions with her ? ” “ Not for ten 

thousand worlds,” was her energetic reply. 
“ No ! ” she added ; “ I fear she has not chosen 
the good part.” 

Sabbath afternoon, the mortal conflict was 
upon her. The restlessness of death, the crav- 
ing for some change of posture, the cold 
sweats, the labored respiration, all had the 
effect merely to make her ask, “ How long do 
you think I must suffer ? ” That labored 
breathing tired her; she wished that I could 
regulate it for her. “How long,” said she, 
“ will it probably continue ? ” 

I told her that heaven was a free gift at 
the last as well as at first; that we could 
not pass within the gate at will, but must 
wait God’s time; that there were sufferings 
yet necessary to her complete preparation for 
heaven, of which she would see the use here- 
after, but not now. This made her wholly 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


23 


quiet ; and after that she rode at anchor many 
hours, hard by the inner lighthouse, waiting 
for the Pilot. 

The last words which she uttered to me, an 
hour before she died, were, I am going to get 
my crown.” I wondered at her in my thoughts, 
(0, help my unbelief!) to hear a dying sin- 
ner so confident. I said to myself, 0 wo- 
man, great is thy faith.” She knew that her 
crown was a free gift, purchased at infinite 
expense ; a crown, instead of deserved chains, 
under darkness. All unmerited, and more than 
forfeited, yet she spoke of her crown, be- 
cause she believed with a simple faith, taking 
Christ at his word, and being willing to re- 
ceive rewards and honors from him without 
projecting her own sense of unworthiness to 
stay the overflowings of infinite love and 
grace towards her. So that, in her own es- 
teem as undeserving as the chief of sinners, 
thinking as little as possible of her own 
righteousness, and being among the last to 
claim any thing of God, she could say with 


24 


CATHARINE. 


one who would not admit that any sinner was 
chief above him, “ Henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
that day; and not to me only, but unto all 
them also that love his appearing.” 

Between two and three o’clock on Monday 
afternoon, January 19, she was quietly re- 
ceiving some food from the nurse, when sud- 
denly she said, “ The room seems dark.” She 
then made a surprising effort, such as she had 
been incapable of for some time, and reached 
forward from her pillow, saying, “ Who is that 
at the door ? ” The nurse was with her alone, 
and at her side, the family being at the table. 
Coming to her room, we found that she was 
apparently sinking into a deep sleep, as though 
it were only a sleep, profound and quiet. 

I asked her if she knew me. 

She made no answer. 

I said, “ You know Jesus.” A smile played 
about her mouth. We rejoiced, and wept 
fof joy. 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


25 


I then said, If you know father, press my 
hand.” She gave me no sign — that smile 
being her last intelligent act. — And so she 

o o 

passed within the veil. 

I was able to relate all this from my pulpit 
the Sabbath after her decease, not merely 
because the period of the greatest suffering 
under bereavement had not come, but chiefly 
because the consolations of the trying scene, 
and hopes full of immortality, had not lost 
their new power. I was therefore like those 
who, on the first Christian Sabbath morning, 
departed quickly from the sepulchre with 
fear and great joy, and did run to bring his 
disciples word.” 

It is intimated above that the greatest suf- 
fering at the death of a friend does not occur 
immediately upon the event. It comes when 
the world have forgotten that you have cause 
to weep ; for when the eyes are dry, the heart 
is often bleeding. There are hours, — no, they 
are more concentrated than hours, — there are 
moments, when the thought of a lost and loved 

3 

. 

t 


26 


CATHARINE. 


one^ who has perished out of your family circle, 
suspends all interest in every thing else ; when 
the memory of the departed floats over you 
like a wandering perfume, and recollections 
come in throngs with it, flooding the soul with 
grief The name, of necessity or accidentally 
spoken, sets all your soul ajar; and your sense 
of loss, utter loss, for all time, brings more sor- 
row with it by far than the parting scene. 

She who was the sweet singer of my little 
Israel is no more. The child whose sense of 
beauty made her the swiftest herald to me of 
every fair discovery and new household joy, 
will never greet me again with her surprises 
of gladness. She who, leaning upon my arm 
as we walked, silently conveyed to me such a 
sense of evenness, firmness, dignity ; she whose 
child-like love was turning into the womanly 
affection for a father ; she who was complete in 
herself, as every good child is, not suggesting 
to your thoughts what you would have a child 
be, but filling out the orb of your ideal beauty, 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


27 


still partly in outline ; her seat^ her place at 
the table^ at prayers-, at the piano, at church ; 
the sight of her going out and coming in ; her 
tones of speech, her helpful spirit and hands, 
and all the unfinished creations of her skill, 
every thing that made her that which the 
growing associations with her name had built 
up in our hearts, — all is gone, for this life ; it 
is removed like a tree ; it is departed like 
a shepherd’s tent. 

And all this, too, is saved. It survives, or 
I would not, I could not, write thus. There 
comes to my sorrowing heart some such mes- 
sage as the sons of Jacob brought to their 
father, when they said, Joseph is yet alive, 
and he is governor over all the land of 
Egypt.” 

Jesus of Nazareth has been in my dwelling, 
and .has done a great work of healing. He 
has saved my child ; saved her to be a happy 
spirit ; forever saved her for himself, to employ 
her powers of mind and heart in his blissful 
service ; saved her for the joyful welcome and 

I- 

i 


28 


CATHARINE. 


embraces of her mother, and of a second 
mother, who laid deep and strong foundations 
in her character for goodness and knowledge. 
He has saved her for me, through all eter- 
nity. She will be my sweet singer again; 
she will have in store for me all the wonderful 
discoveries which her intense love of beauty 
will have made her treasure up, to impart, 
when the child becomes, as it were, parent, 
for a little while, to the soul of the parent 
in heaven, new-born. I said to her, a day or 
two before she died, “Those mothers will show 
you things in heaven; for we read, ‘And he 
shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 
God and the Lamb.’” 

But John mistook this heavenly saint for 
an angel, so glorious was his appearance, and 
he fell down to worship him, but was told, 
“ See thou do it not ; for I am thy fellow- 
servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and 
of them which keep the sayings of this book.” 
Then what will she herself be, when these eyes 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


29 


behold her again? And what will she have 
treasured up to tell me? she, who always 
brought rare things for me from the woods 
and the shore, surpassing those of her com- 
panions. If He who redeemed her, and has 
presented her faultless before the presence of 
his glory with exceeding joy, will bestow that 
nurture and culture upon her which are im- 
plied in leading her to living fountains of 
waters, what will she be? and how good it 
will seem that she left earth so early, since it 
was the will of God, to enter upon such a 
career of bliss I 

A few years ago, I appropriated a wedding 
gift from a friend to the purchase of a gui- 
tar for her, as a birthday gift in her early 
sickness. To assist her in learning to play 
upon it, I first gained some knowledge of the 
instrument. We kept it in its case in my 
study ; and sometimes, on coming home, and 
feeling in the mood of it, I wished to handle 
it, and instead of unlocking the case to 
see if the instrument were there, I would 

3 * 


30 


CATHARINE. 


knock upon it ; and straightway what turbu- 
lence of harmonies rang from all the strings. 
Now, it is so with every thing connected with 
her memory ; every thing associated with her, 
even though outwardly sombre and dreary, 
like those black, cases for musical instruments, 
being appealed to, or accidentally encountered, 
sings of her still, with a troubled and a 
pathetic, pleasing music. 

In her very early childhood, she and two 
of the children were sick with a children’s 
epidemic. The crisis had passed ; an anxious 
day with regard to one of the children had 
been followed by entire relief from our fears. 
As we sat at table that evening, we heard 
music from the chambers of the sick chil- 
dren ; we opened the door and listened. This 
daughter was singing, and the chorus of her 
little school song was, “All are here, all are 
here.” She did not think of the signification 
which those words had to our hearts. It was 
one of those household pleasures which have 
so much of heaven in them. I can sometimes 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


31 


hear her singing to me now, from those upper 
skies, in the name of the four who have gone 
there from my dwelling, All are here, all are 
here.” She bequeathed her guitar, but her 
voice and hand now join with ^Hhe voice of 
harpers harping with their harps.” 

~We sometimes think that they miss great 
good who depart from us in early years ; that 
one who has arrived at the entrance to the 
world’s great feast must be sadly disappointed 
to be led away, never to go in. Now, it is true 
that we must not shrink from the battle of 
life; we must take upon ourselves, if God 
ordains it, the great jeopardy of disappoint- 
ment and sorrow, and the chance of life’s joys; 
we must each stand in his lot; we must send 
children forth into the harvest of the earth for 
sheaves, and whether they faint and die under 
their load, or deck themselves with garlands, 
— still, let them be laborers together with 
God, and let us not seek exemption for them. 
But if God ordains their early translation to 
heaven, what can earth afford them in the way 


32 


CATHARINE. 


of pleasure, granting the cup to be full and 
unalloyed, to be compared with fulness of 
joy? Fair maidens in heaven, — and 0, how 
many of them has consumption gathered in ! 

fair maidens there are like the white flowers, 
which are sacred to peculiar times and scenes. 
How goodly must be their array ! What a per- 
petual spring tide of vivacious joy and delight 
do they create in heaven. It is pleasant to 
have a child among them. 

It has been my privilege to see, in this child, 
an example of true preparation for death, 
which begins before the expectation of dying 
brings the least discredit, or breath* of suspicion, 
upon our motives in attending to the subject 
of religion. Preparation for death consists in 
justiflcation by faith, extending its influence 
into the whole character, to bring us under 
the rule of Christ. The fruit of this is friend- 
ship with God, the confidence of love, know- 
ing whom we have believed, with the per- 
suasion of our having committed to him an 
infinite trust, and that he will keep it with 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


33 


covenant faithfulness. So when death comes 
and knocks at the door, it is true the heart 
beats quicker, as it is apt to do whoever 
knocks there ; for, to give up one’s hold on 
life, to turn and look eternal things full in the 
face, to think of meeting God, and of having 
your endless condition fixed, summons the 
whole of natural and acquired fortitude; and 
only they who have an unseen arm to lean 
upon at such a time, endure in that trial. 
Then past experience comes in with her 
powerful aid : “ I have fought a good fight ; ” 

“ the wise took oil in their vessels with their 
lamps;” “remember, O Lord, how I have 
walked before thee.” Thus there is something 
to make you feel that your justification, by 
free grace, has the evidence afforded by its 
fruits ; and the preparation to die may be 
likened to that of which the Saviour speaks 
when he says, “ He that is washed needeth not 
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” 
I have seen it, have watched it, have studied 
it, in the dying scenes of this child. Hers was 


34 


CATHARINE. 


not the experience of the sinner, pulled sud- 
denly from the waves by a hand which he had 
for a long time, nay, always, spurned ; but her 
dying was an arrival at the end of a voyage, 
the coming home of a good child to long- 
expecting hearts and arms. We said one to 
another around her dying bed, — yes, we had 
composure to say, as we watched that parting 
scene, that fading cloud, that sinking gale, that 
dying wave, that shutting eye of day, — 
Think of such a poor, helpless, dying creature, 
if, in the sense intended by those words, she 
should ‘ fall into the hands of the living God.’ ” 
And we glorified God in her. Never did I see 
and feel more deeply, by contrast, the folly of 
trusting to a death-bed repentance, to repair 
the errors of a wasted life. It is a deliberate 
attempt at fraud upon the Most High; it is 
folly ; for the risk is fearful, and could we ob- 
tain salvation, how mercenarily ! — and what a 
memorial would it be in heaven of loss, instead 
of being “ a crown of righteousness ! ” They 
who are all their lifetime ignorant, being unfor- 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


35 


tunately deprived of opportunity for religious 
instruction^ may with wonder and joy accept 
the surprising news of pardon, through Christ, 
on a dying bed, and soar to the same heights 
with apostles in their praises of redeeming love. 
But if we hear of salvation by Christ all our 
life long, and know our duty, but prefer the 
pleasures of sin for a season, and think that in 
the swellings of Jordan we shall find peace 
and safety, our conduct deserves all the oppro- 
brious names which are heaped upon it by 
inspired tongues and pens. We who are 
parents must teach our children that religion 
does not consist merely in being pardoned, 
and, if pardoned, no matter whether early or 
late ; but that it is the first, the constant, the 
all-pervading rule of life, God and his service 
the chief end of man, and that the pleasures 
of religion are the sweetest pleasures, hallow- 
ing all others which are innocent, and leading 
us to reject those, and only those, which would 
be unsuitable or injurious, even if religious 
custom did not forbid them. We must know 


36 


CATHARINE. 


this, and practise upon it, ourselves ; else, how 
can we expect the children to believe it? 

The exceeding relief which a timely prep- 
aration for death by an early consecration 
of herself to God, imparted to this child and 
to us, was felt in this, that she and we had 
no distressing thoughts at her total inability, 
for a long time, to join in prayer with others, 
or to be conversed with in any way that 
excited much feeling. The diseased throat, 
where, as we all know, our emotions, even 
in health and strength, make such interfer- 
ence with our comfort, prevented her from 
joining in any religious exercises, because she 
would then be liable to the excitement of 
feelings which, in the way just intimated, 
would have injured her. With such affec- 
tions of the bronchial passages, efforts of 
mind which are not spontaneous are some- 
times agony. Connected endeavors to follow 
conversation and prayer were impossible, and 
she told me, on saying this, that she took 
great comfort from a remark, in a book. 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


37 


addressed to a sick person — "Do not think, 
but pray.” She prayed much herself; her 
thoughts, too, were prayers, in certain cases. 
Now, in that weakened condition, what could 
she have done, and what would have been her 
father’s feelings, had she not, in health and 
strength, arrived at such a state of religious 
knowledge and experience as to remove anxi- 
ety for her spiritual welfare, and to make us 
feel that she had Christ in her the hope of 
glory ? When the cry was made, “ Behold, 
the bridegroom cometh,” she arose and 
trimmed her lamp, and had oil in her ves- 
sel with her lamp. Wealth could not pur- 
chase the relief and satisfaction which this 
gave to her friends ; — so truly is religion 
called the " pearl of great price ; ” so literally 
true are the Saviour’s words, " But one thing 
is needful.” It is the greatest blessing which 
a young person can bestow on Christian 
parents, to be a Christian; and what its 
value is to surviving parents, ask those who 
sorrow as they that have no hope. When a 


S8 


CATHARINE. 


young Christian comes to die^ he testifies that 
he lost nothing, but gained every thing, with 
eternal life, by being a Christian in his early 
years. I can imagine what this child would 
say to one and another of her young friends 
who may read these pages, and how she would 
seek to persuade them, as the first great duty 
of their existence, and for their best good 
here, and for their everlasting peace, to choose 
the good part, which will never be taken away 
from them. 

Her funeral was a scene from which many 
went away rejoicing in God ; and not a few 
date new progress in the Christian life from 
it, by means of the new and striking illustra- 
tion which they there had of the Saviour’s 
power and love. The Choir struck the key 
note of heaven in their opening strains, by 
chanting, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, 
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” 
They gave us, too, her favorite song, by which 
she was remembered in several circles, at home 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


39 


and abroad^ before she was sick^ and the words 
of which^ now^ seem to have had a prophetic 
meaning from her lips : — 

“ I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger ; 

I can tarry, I can tarry but a night ; ” — 


which was sung at the funeral with a sweet- 
ness which added much to the associations 
with it in our minds ; and in the closing hymn, 
how strange it seemed, at a funeral, to hear 
the singers, though by our own request and 
though in accordance with all which had passed, 
bid us 

“Proclaim abroad his name, 

Tell of his matchless fame. 

What wonders done ! 

Shout through hell’s dark profound, 

Let the whole earth resound. 

Till the high heavens rebound, 

The victory’s won ; ” — 

and to hear them, as they cried one to an« 
other, saying, — 

“All hail the glorious day, 

When, through the heavenly way, 

Lo, He shall come ; 


40 


CATHARINE . 


While they who pierced him wail ; 
His promise shall not fail ; 

Saints, see your King prevail ; 
Come, dear Lord, come/* 


For those ministrations of love and tender- 
ness in the last, sad offices to the dead, which 
no wealth could buy, repeated now by some of 
the same hands several times in my dwelling, 
there are no words of gratitude adequate to 
the great debt of love. The mothers of my 
church, who met weekly with her mother for 
prayer, remembered her child, and provided 
nurses for her, to her own unspeakable com- 
fort and our great relief. Friends and stran- 
gers, touched with her protracted sickness, 
poured blessings around her couch ; fruits, in 
their season, and when out of their season, of 
what almost unearthly beauty ! and flowers 
which, with the fruits, made that sick room 
seem like the garden which the Lord planted 
in Eden. Such have been the alleviations of 
pain and suffering, the comforts, and even the 
pleasures, and above all the rich spiritual con- 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


41 


solations and joys, and the more than con- 
quering faith of the dying hour^ — such a union 
in all this of Jesus and his friends, — that I 
have made the case of the ruler of the syna- 
gogue mine, of whom, as he went to his* afflict- 
ed house, it is said, And Jesus arose and fol- 
lowed him, and so did his disciples.” They 
will go wherever Jesus leads the way; and he 
will lead the way wherever there is a lamb to 
be folded in his bosom. 

There were not wanting those who lent me 
their sepulchre, in the city, for a season — a 
kindness always peculiar and affecting, but also 
needful in this instance, because of the great 
snows which made the roads to Mount Auburn 
impassable for several days. Nor can I forget 
that, when Saturday evening closed upon us, 
words and tokens of kindness came from the 
younger members of my congregation, who 
had provided for the last earthly things 
which the precious dust of their young friend 
required ; and so they seemed to bid me rest 
from all care and thoughtfulness, upon the 


42 


CATHARINE. 


“ Sabbath day, according to the cominand- 
ment.” All which should increase my feel- 
ings of sympathy and kindness for the sick, 
and especially for the sick poor, whose rooms, 
and whose dying hours, and whose griefs, are 
oftentimes in such contrast to those into which 
divine and human loving kindness seem striv- 
ing to pour their abundant consolations. As 
the family retired from the dying scene, and 
were weeping together, a father came to my 
door, in that great snow-storm, to say that his 
son, the young man, not a member of my 
congregation, whom I had several times vis- 
ited, was near his end, and would like to see 
me. Stranger comparatively though he was, 
and impassable as the streets were by any 
vehicle, and almost by foot passengers, my 
gratitude for the sweet and peaceful end of 
my own dear child, and for her undoubted 
admission to the realms of bliss, was such, that, 
within an hour or two, I forced my way to 
a distant part of the city, to assist another 
departing spirit for its flight. This heart has 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


43 


no more fortitude^ nor has it less of natural 
affection and sensibility^ than ordinarily falls 
to the lot of men; hence those consolations 
must have been great, that support and 
strength equal to the day, that hope con- 
cerning my child an anchor sure and steadfast, 
which enabled me thus to go from her clay, 
just, cold, to aid a passing spirit in obtaining 
like precious faith with hers, and. the same 
inheritance. My motive in thus lifting a 
little of the veil, or in placing a light behind 
the transparency, of my private feelings, I 
trust will be seen to be, that I may comfort 
others with the comfort wherewith I was 
comforted of God. 

But there awaits me a blessing, with a joy, 
surpassing all that has gone before. My 
daughter is even now dead; but come and 
lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” 
From her grave, which was soon made by 
the side of kindred dust, Jesus will raise her 
up at the last day ; her voice will come to that 
body; her youthful beauty will be reestab- 


44 


CATHARINE. 


lished by her likeness to Christ’s own glo- 
rious body ; she will lean upon my arm 
. again ; the separation and absence will en- 
hance the joy of meeting ; we shall say, 
How like a hand-breadth was the separa- 
tion! We shall see reasons full of wisdom 
and love for the sickness and the early death. 
We shall part no more. All this has more 
than once, made me say, and sing, — 

“ O, for this love, let rocks and hills 
Their lasting silence break, 

And all harmonious human tongues 
The Saviour’s praises speak.” 


Young friend, you will need him as the 
great Physician, the Friend in sorrow, the 
Forerunner in the dark passages of life, the 
Conqueror of death, the Lord our Righteous- 
ness, and, all endearing names in one, Im- 
manuel, God with us. 

Parents, you will need him for your chil- 
dren. Children, you will need him when 
father and mother, one or both, have forsaken 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


45 


you, or, if alive, can only make you feel how 
little their fond love can do for you. When 
the name of father, cannot rouse you, nor your 
cold hand return the pressure of your father’s 
hand, you will need a nearer, dearer friend, in 
the person of Him who loved you, and gave 
himself for you. 

It has been one of the richest joys of my 
pastoral life, that I have sent to her mother 
in heaven her child, whom God had prepared 
for so early a departure out of this world. 
This ministry of reconciliation has been blessed 
to the salvation of my child. It should make 
me love the children of my pastoral charge 
more than ever, seek to gather them into the 
fold of Christ, that whole families, each like a 
constellation, may rise together in the firma- 
ment of heaven ; and, in the mean time, that 
the members of every household, as they 
desert us one by one, may call back to us, and 
say, for the departed, “ All are here.” 

God takes a family here and there, in a 
circle of acquaintances and friends, and greatly 


46 


CATHARINE. 


afflicts them ; and thus he teaches others. As 
we look, therefore, upon the afflicted, we ought 
to saj, — 

“For us they languish, and for us they die ; 

And shall they langmsh, shall they die, in vain ? ** 

God is the same when he takes away the 
child, as when he laid that gift in our hands. 
Perhaps, indeed, the removal is really a 
greater exercise of love than the gift. It 
must seem good and acceptable in the sight 
of God, if, when we are bereaved, we employ 
ourselves occasionally in rehearsing before 
him the circumstances in his past goodness, 
which, at the time, made it exceedingly sweet 
and precious. Our debt of obligation for it is 
not yet fully paid ; nor is it diminished at all 
by the removal of the blessing. Instead of 
abandoning ourselves to grief, we do well if 
we commune with God more frequently re- 
specting his signal acts of favor in connection 
with the lost blessing. 

But the memory of lost joys is always apt 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 47 . 

to depress the mind inordinately. We ques- 
tion whether it is really better to have 

“ loved and lost 

Than never to have loved at all.” 


Taking a future life into the account^ surely 
no doubt can remain as to that question ; but 
one who has really loved^ will not be long in 
coming to the same conclusion^ irrespective of 
the future. Must God abstain from making 
us exceedingly happy, because, forsooth, we 
shall be so unhappy when, in the exercise of 
the same goodness and wisdom which dictated 
the gift, he sees it best to take it away ? If 
we love him more than we love his gifts, then 
the removal of them will make us love him 
more than ever. 

“Though now He frowns, I’ll praise the Almighty’s name, 
And bless the source whence past enjoyments came.” 

We often hear it said, that every thing which 
happens to us is for our good, even in this 
world. — Many things happen to men, even to 


.48 


CATHARINE. 


Christians, which are plainly not for their secu- 
lar good in this life, though all things will, event- 
ually, work together for good to them that love 
God. Some things, then, even here, are in- 
tended to be life-long sorrows and trials. Their 
object is reproof and constant admonition. We 
need another state of existence to explain the 
present. If that future state does not prove that 
earthly discipline has had its designed effect, 
the sorrows of this life show that God can bear 
to see us suffer, even when he foresees that no 
good will result to the sufferer. For while 
men suffer excruciatingly under bereavements, 
these sufferings often fail to make them better. 
God foresees all this. Hence God is able to 
look upon suffering which he sees will not be 
for the good of the afflicted. 

If, now, his design in our trials (which 
pierced his heart before they reached ours) is 
utterly frustrated by our sins, the question will 
arise, whether the God who can bear to see us 
suffer for our srood, which, nevertheless, he 
foresees will not be effected, will not be able to 


MOKE THAN CONQUEROR. 


49 


see us suffer as the fruit of our sins, and of our 
resistance to his designs. One who has en- 
dured much mental suffering cannot have 
failed to see, that God’s parental relation to us 
is not analogous to that of parent and child 
among men. It terminates in the relations 
of governor and of judge ; being, indeed, from 
the first, included in those relations. This is not 
so in our earthly relationship. God sees men 
suffer as no earthly parent could ; he inflicts 
pain as no earthly parent should. All is for 
our profit ; but if that object fails through our 
perverseness, we are instructed, by our expe- 
rience, that if God can look on mental anguish 
and not relieve it, because he seeks an ulterior 
good, the punishment of sin, the natural and 
just consequences of disobedience to the great 
laws of the universe, may be, in their extended 
impression, another ulterior good, which will 
warrant the same mental sufferings after death, 
and forever. 

Could I be permitted, therefore, I would 
take by the hand every bereaved father whom 

5 


50 


CATHARINE. 


SO great an affliction as the death of a child 
has not succeeded in bringing into a state of 
preparation for heaven, and kindly ask how 
he expects to bear a final and endless sepa- 
ration. “If thou hast run with the footmen, 
and they have Avearied thee, then how canst 
thou contend with horses ? and if in the land 
of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied 
thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of 
Jordan ? ” God describes to his ancient people 
one of the great sorrows which will happen to 
them, if they forsake him, in their separations 
by captivity from their children : “ Thy sons 
and thy daughters shall be given unto another 
people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with 
longing, for them all the day long ; and there 
shall be no might in thy hand.” Pains of 
absence, sudden convulsions of feeling at the 
remembered looks, form, words, and motions of 
a loved one, sometimes are as when men feel the 
earth quaking under them; and then, again, 
they entirely prostrate us, for the moment, like 
a tornado. Homesickness in a foreign land, — 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


51 


an ocean stretching between us and the ob- 
jects of our love — is an admonition to us 
with respect to future, endless separations. 
The hopeless death of a child has sometimes 
had the effect to change the long-established 
faith of a parent with regard to future retribu- 
tion ; all the acknowledged principles of inter- 
pretation, all the results of meditation and 
prayer, the theory of the divine government 
which has been built up in the soul, till it be- 
came identified with personal consciousness, 
the whole analogy of faith, — all, have been 
swept away by the overmastering power of 
parental love for one who, when he died, left 
his friends to sorrow as they that have no 
hope. Now, supposing a parent to fail of 
heaven, and to retain his instinctive parental 
feelings, the endless separation between him 
and his family will be a source of sorrow 
which needs only to be kept up, by an ever- 
living memory, to constitute all which is pic- 
tured in the boldest metaphors of inspired 
tongues and pens. A father in disgrace, or 


62 


CATHARINE. 


under ignominy, suffers intensely when he sees 
or thinks of his children, provided his natural 
sensibilities are not destroyed. A father pun- 
ished hereafter by his Redeemer and Judge, 
a father banished from the company of heaven, 
knowing that his family are there, and that if 
his influence had had its full effect, they would 
all have perished with him, — or a father with 
a part of his children with him in perdition, 
the wife and mother with one or more of the 
children in heaven, — is a picture of woe 
which nothing but timely repentance and 
faith in Christ may prevent from being a 
reality in the experience of some who read 
these lines. Can it be true, as Bishop Hall 
says, that “to be happy is not so sweet a 
state as it is miserable to have been happy”? 
0 man, if you have a child in heaven, think 
that, among the sweet influences of divine 
love, there probably is no more powerful 
motive to draw your affections towards God, 
than that glimpse which you sometimes seem 
to have of this child’s face, on which heaven 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


53 


has traced its lineaments of peace and bliss; 
or that sudden whisper of a gentle, child-like 
voice, now and then heard by the ear of 
fancy, persuading you to be a Christian. Do 
not let the world, or shame, or procrasti- 
nation, lead you to resist such efforts of 
almighty love to save you. He who has had 
a child saved by Christ, and will not be him- 
self a Christian, — what more can God do to 
save him? 

The breaking up of our homes is one of 
the mysteries of God’s providence. The last 
thing, perhaps, which we might suppose 
would be allowed, is, the removal of a 
mother from a family of young children. 
This being so frequent, we cease to wonder 
at any other dispensations ; we conclude that 
separations are to be made, regardless of any 
and every seeming necessity and endear- 
ment. “ Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will 
be with hurt and much damage, not only of 
the lading and ship, but also of our lives.” 
The conviction is forced upon us that there is 

5 * 


54 


CATHARINE. 


another world, for which we must make all 
our calculations. “There is a better world,” 
said the distinguished William Wirt, after the 
death of his daughter, in 1831, — “there is a 
better world, of which I have thought too 
little. To that world she has gone, and thither 
my affections have followed her. This was 
Heaven’s design. I see and feel it as dis- 
tinctly as if an angel had revealed it. I 
often imagine that I can see her beckoning me 
to the happy world to which she has gone. 
She was my companion, my office companion, 
my librarian, my clerk. My papers now bear 
her indorsement. She pursued her studies in 
my office, by my side, sat with me, walked 
with me, was my inexpressibly sweet and 
inseparable companion, — never left me but to 
go and sit with her mother. We knew all her 
intelligence, all her pure and delicate sensibil- 
ity, the quickness and power of her percep- 
tions, her seraphic love. She was all love, and 
loved all God’s creation, even the animals, 
trees, and plants. She loved her God and 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


55 


Saviour with an angel’s love, and died like a 
saint.” * 

About the same time, he writes to his 
wife, — 

“ I want only my blessed Saviour’s assurance 
of pardon and acceptance to be at peace. I 
wish to find no rest short of rest in him. — Let 
us both look up to that heaven — where our 
Saviour dwells, and from which he is showing 
us the attractive face of our blessed and 
happy child, and bidding us prepare to come 
to her, since she can no more visibly come 
to us. I have no taste now for worldly busi- 
ness. I go to it reluctantly. I would keep 
company only with my Saviour and his holy 
book. I dread the world, the strife, and con- 
tention, 'and emulation of the bar; yet I will 
do my duty — this is part of my religion.” 

In December, 1833, another daughter died ; 
but he writes, — 

“ I look upon life as a drama, bearing the 


* Kennedy’s Life of William Wirt — letter to Judge Carr, 


56 


CATHARINE. 


same sort, though not the same degree, of rela- 
tion to eternity, as an hour spent at the the- 
atre, and the fictions there exhibited ... do to 
the whole of real life. Nor is there any things 
in this passing pageant worth the sorrow that 
we lavish on it. Now, when my children or 
friends leave me, or when I shall be called to 
leave them, I consider it as merely parting for 
the present visit, to meet under happier cir- 
cumstances, when we shall part no more.”* 

“ All my children,” said the venerable John 
Eliot, of Koxbury, “ are either with Christ or 
in Christ.” Happy, happy man! The little 
ones, blighted soon by the touch of death, 
surely are with Christ ; for of such is the 
kingdom of God.” The cherub boy, -and the 
blooming, broken flower, the young daughter, 
— the young man in his strength, the young- 
maiden in her beauty, — are there. As we 
commune together, in the pages which follow. 


Kennedy’s Life of William Wirt — letter to Judge Cabell. 


MORE THAN CONQUEROR. 


5T 


on themes touching this subject, God grant 
that every one who has not yet gladdened the 
heart of parent, and pastor, nay, of that infi- 
nite Friend, our Saviour, by the surrender of 
‘the heart to God, and every father and mother 
who is yet unprepared to join the growing 
circle of the family in heaven, — (‘ how grows 
in Paradise their store ! ’) — may, as we reach 
the last page, find that with cords of a man, 
with bands of love. He who made Pleiades, and 
Arcturus and his sons, has united them in 
eternal fellowship with their departed loved 
ones, through faith in Christ. This, while it 
hallows the remainder of life with the rich, 
mellowed beauty of the changing leaf, aftd 
ripening grain, and shortening days, lays the 
foundation of that perfect happiness for which 
our homes are intended to prepare us ; their 
joys alluring, their separations pointing, us to 
heaven. 


11 . 

THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 

Yea, and moreover this full well know I ; 

He that’s at any time afraid to die 

Is in weak case, and (whatsoe’er he saith) 

Hath but a wavering and a feeble faith. 

Geoeoe Withee. 

Unless we know the customs of the wan- 
dering shepherds with their flocks, one verse 
in the twenty-third Psalm, so often quoted in 
view of death, appears abrupt, but otherwise 
appropriate and very beautiful. One of a 
flock is expressing his confidence in God, his 
Shepherd: “When I have satisfied my hun- 
ger from the green pastures, he makes me to 
lie down in them ; and the still, clear streams 
are my drink.” Then a thought occurs 
which appears as though a dying man were 
speaking, and not a sheep : but it is still the 
language of a sheep. Keeping this in mind, 

( 58 ) 


THE PEAR OP DEATH ALLEVIATED. 59 


let it be remembered that the shepherds 
wandered from place to place to find pas- 
ture. In doing so, they were sometimes 
obliged to pass through dark, lonely valleys. 
Wild beasts, and creatures less formidable, but 
of hateful sight, and with doleful voices, made 
it difficult for the flocks to be led through 
such passages. There was frequently no other 
way from one pasturage to another but 
through these places of death-shade, or val- 
leys of the shadow of death, — which was a 
term to express any dark and dismal place. 

Now, let us imagine a flock reposing in a 
green pasture, and by the side of still waters, 
conversing about their shepherd, their pas- 
tures, and streams. One of them says, “ In the 
midst of all this peace and contentment, 
there is a thought which spoils my com- 
fort. We cannot stay here forever; we are 
to go, presently, beyond the mountains ; they 
say that there are valleys, in those regions, 
full of dangers. My expectation is, that we 
shall be torn to pieces. My enjoyment of 


60 


C AT a ABINE . 


these pastures 'and waters is nearly destroyed 
by my forebodings about those valleys.” 

Another of the flock replies, “ Have we not 
an able, faithful, experienced shepherd ? Have 
we not seen his ability to defend us in past 
dangers? Is he not as much concerned for 
our defence and safety as ourselves? While 
he is my shepherd, I shall not want. — Yea, 
though I walk through those valleys of death- 
shade, I will fear no evil ; for he is with me ; 
his rod and his staff they comfort me.” 

The shepherd carried with him two instru- 
ments — the staf^ for his own support, and to 
attack a beast or robber; and the crook, or 
rod. By this crook, the shepherd guided a 
sheep in a dangerous pass, placing the crook 
under the sheep’s neck, to hold it up and 
assist its steps. When a sheep was disposed 
to stray, the shepherd could hold it back 
with his crook. When the sheep had fallen 
into the power of a beast, the crook assisted 
in drawing it away. A good sheep loved 
the crook as much as the staff, — to be guided. 


THE PEAR OP DEATH ALLEVIATED. 61 


as well as to be defended. Both of the 
shepherd’s instruments were a great comfort 
to the sheep, while passing through a fright- 
ful and dangerous valley. 

The interpretation usually given to the 
words, thy rod and thy staff” — as though 
they meant “thy gentle reproofs and thy 
severe rebukes ” — is erroneous. A sheep 
would hardly tell his shepherd that his 
chastising rod, and the heavy blows of his 
stafl^ comforted him. The meaning is. It is 
a comfort to me to feel the crook of thy 
rod helping me in trouble, and to know that 
thy staff is my defence against wild beasts. 


Through fear of death, many who are truly 
the followers of Christ, are, nevertheless, all 
their lifetime subject to bondage. On what- 
ever mountains, into whatever pastures, and 
by whatever streams, their Shepherd leads 
them, they know that there is a valley into 

which they must go down, and the imagined 
6 


62 


CATHARINE. 


darkness and horrors of the place make them 
continually afraid. 

A fear of death, without doubt, is frequently 
permitted, as a means of religious restraint. 
Some who have wondered at this trial all their 
life long find that its influence is great in 
keeping them near to the Shepherd and Bish- 
op of their souls. If a flock could reason, no 
doubt the shepherd would make use of the 
fears of the sheep, in many instances, to keep 
them from going astray. If one of them were 
inclined to wander, it would be natural for the 
shepherd to caution that sheep against the 
dark valley, warning her of its terrors, and. 
making her feel how necessary it would be 
to have a shepherd there, with his crook and 
staff It may be that apprehensions with re- 
gard to death are the most powerful means, 
with some, of keeping them from going astray, 
and of holding their minds to the contempla- 
tion of spiritual things. 

It has often been observed that those Chris- 
tians whose fears of death were very great for 


THE PEAE OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 63 


a large part of their life, frequently die with 
triumph. The reality is not such as they 
feared ; they found support and consolation 
which they did not anticipate. 

One of the most trying anticipations with 
regard to death, in the minds of many, long 
before the event arrives, is, separation from 
those whom we love. And yet, there is prob- 
ably nothing in human experience more re- 
markable than the singular resignation, and 
even cheerfulness, with which some, who have 
had every thing to make life desirable, have 
left all and followed Christ when he came to 
lead them through the valley. The young 
wife and mother, in her dying hours, becomes 
the comforter of her husband ; she turns and 
looks at the infant who is held up to receive 
her farewell, and the mother alone is calm, 
sheds no tear, gives the farewell kiss with com- 
posure. “Thy rod” is supporting her; “thy 
staff ” is keeping at bay the passions and fears 
of the natural heart So a widowed mother 
leaves a large family of young children with 


64 


CATHARINE . 


a peace which passes all understanding. And 
the father of a dependent family, which never 
could, in a greater measure, need a father’s 
presence, looks upon them from his dying 
bed and says to them, with the sei'enity of 
the patriarch, “Behold, I die; but God shall 
be with you.” Nothing is more true than this, 
that dying- grace is for a dying hour; that is, 
we cannot, in health and strength, have the 
feelings which belong to the hour of parting ; 
but as any and every scene and condition into 
which God brings his children, has its peculiar 
frames of mind fitted to the necessity of each 
case, we need not make the useless effort to 
practise all the resignation, and experience all 
the comforts, which come only when they are 
actually needed. We do not often hear the 
first part of the following passage quoted ; but 
in such rocky and thorny paths as we are often 
made to pass through, how good it is to read : 
“ Thy shoes shall be iron and brass ; and as thy 
days, so shall thy strength be.” If God is our 
Shepherd, he will cause us to pass, one by one. 


THE FEAE OP DEATH ALLEVIATED. 65 


through, the valley which is before us, leaving 
some most dear to us on the hither side. Sup- 
pose that when a shepherd is employed in 
removing his flock from one mountain to an- 
other, through a valley, one of the flock should 
mourn his separation from companions, or 
from its young. The shepherd would say, “ You 
cannot all pass together ; leave your com- 
panions and the young to me ; I will restore 
them to you on the other side.” He might also 
remonstrate and say, “ Am I not, as their shep- 
herd, interested in protecting and removing 
them ? You can add nothing to my strength 
and wisdom ; let me take you safely through 
the valley, and trust me to do the same for 
them.” 

The ancient shepherd was specially careful 
of the lambs ; he carried them in his arms, and 
sometimes folded them beneath his shepherd’s 
coat. We can imagine the feelings of some of 
a flock when, leaving them at a short distance, 
but within sight, the shepherd would take a 
lamb, carry it down into the valley, and dis- 


66 


CATHARINE. 


appear with it for a little while. With all 
their confidence in their shepherd, some of the 
flock would manifest uneasiness at the separa- 
tion, especially if the yalley looked dark and 
dangerous. If it were the only lamb of its 
mother, it was natural for that mother to be 
distressed, and to lament. Though the young 
creature had gone safely to the other side, 
and was at play in the new pasture, and the 
mother believed it, this could not always quiet 
her. The good Shepherd has taken some of 
our lambs through the valley. They are safe 
upon the other side. They have joined the 
flock of Christ. Let us give our lambs to 
the Shepherd’s care, to bear them through the 
valley, whenever he sees fit that they should 
be removed. We must all pass through that 
valley. If, from special love to our young, he 
will see them safely on the other side before 
he calls for us, we will intrust them to Him 
who claims our confidence by saying to us, I 
am the Good Shepherd. One of the prophe- 
cies concerning Christ reveals that tender love 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 67 


and care^ on his part^ for children^ which charac- 
terized him while on earth : He shall gather 
the lambs with his arm^ and carry them in his 
bosom.’' 

The fear of death is owing, in many cases, 
to the dread of dissolution. 

The previous sickness prepares the soul and 
the body for their separation, so that, in very 
many cases, it is the greatest relief to die. We 
are, perhaps, mistaken if we suppose that those 
Christians who are in great bodily pain in their 
last hours, suffer in mind. The effects of death 
on the frame do not necessarily disturb the 
tranquillity of the soul. The body may be in 
spasms while the soul is at peace ; and the re- 
verse is true; — as in nightmare, when the mind 
is distressed while the body sleeps. A Christian 
has nothing to fear in this respect. To die will 
not be — as in full health we suppose it is — a 
violent rending asunder of the soul from the 
unyielding grasp of the body; but the prepara- 
tion of the mortal frame for dissolution, by the 
sickness, however rapid, also fits the mind for 


68 


CATHARINE. 


the event Even in cases of death by acci- 
dents, this appears to be true. 

But many feel that to die is to be transferred 
suddenly, and with violence, into strange scenes, 
which must overwhelm and distract the senses. 
It seems to them that it must be like being 
whirled instantly into a distant, unknown city, 
and waking up amidst the confusion and strange- 
ness of that place. We cannot believe that 
such is the experience of dying Christians. It 
would rather seem that there is, at first, a per- 
ception of spiritual forms, of ministering spirits, 
whispering peace to the soul, and assuring it of 
safety, and bidding it fear not. It is said of 
angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister for them who shall be 
heirs of salvation ?” When can we need their 
ministry more than in the passage from this 
world to the world of spirits ? Perhaps the 
disclosure is made of some departed friends ; 
and the fancy of those who thought that they 
saw beloved ones beckoning them away, may 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 69 


have had its foundation in truth. There is 
much of probability in that well-known piece, 
“ The dying Christian’s address to his soul ; ” — 
and no part of it is more probable than this: — 

Hark ! they whisper ; angels say, 

Sister spirit, come away.’" 

It is not improbable— it seems accordant with 
divine goodness that such methods should 
be employed to relieve the anxiety of the de- 
parting spirit. Sometimes the dying Christian 
has declared that he heard enrapturing music. 
It is possible that voices were employed to 
soothe him to sleep, and to soften the transi- 
tion from the full consciousness of life to the 
revelations of the heavenly world. Perhaps 
the effect of disease upon the organs of hearing 
was such as to produce something like sounds, 
which, in a joyous state of mind, were pleas- 
urable. During the siege of Jerusalem in 
1836, the wife of an American missionary sung 
while dissolution was actually taking place. 
The tones of her voice, they said, seemingly 
more than mortal, were far different from any 


70 


CATHARINE . 


thing which they had ever heard^ even from 
her. God is often pleased to use these natural 
effects of dissolution on the body^ to comfort the 
passing spirit of his child. Whether visions or 
real voices are actually seen or heard^ is of no 
consequence so long as the soul has a rational 
and assured hope. Some means are unques- 
tionably used in every case to make the dying 
believer feel that he is safe. He is not com- 
pelled to wait in uncertainty and fear for a 
moment. His fears are anticipated ; he is 
among other friends^ the moment that he grows 
insensible to those who watch his departing 
breath. Neither are we to suppose that 
heaven breaks upon the senses of the spirit 
with such an overpowering brightness as to 
excite confusion and pain. No doubt the reve- 
lation is gradual and most pleasant. Perhaps 
the celestial city appears at first in the dis- 
tance^ having the glory of God most precious ; 
the approach to it is gradual ; voices are heard 
afar off, and from the convoy of ministering 
spirits, such information and instructions are 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 71 


received as prepare it for the full vision of 
heaven. Every thing is calm and serene ; the 
light is attempered to its new and feeble 
vision. He who makes the sun to rise by slow 
degrees^ and does not pour straight, fierce rays 
upon the waking eyes even of sinful men, cer- 
tainly will not torment the soul of his child 
with any such revelations of unseen things as 
will give pain. The same care which has 
redeemed and saved him, will order all these 
things in covenanted love. 

Some of the preceding thoughts are well 
expressed in the following anonymous lines, 
written on seeing Mr. Greenough’s group of 
the Angel and Child ascending to Heaven : — 

“ Child. Whither now wilt thou proceed ? 

Angel. Come up hither ; I will show thee. 

Follow me with joyful speed ; 

Leave thy native earth below thee. 

Child. Stop ! mine eyes cannot contam 

Such a wondrous flood of light. 

Angel. Come up hither. Thou shalt gain, 

As thou risest, stronger sight 
Child. Lost in wonder without end, 

Joyful, fearful, longing, shrinking, 


72 


CATHARINE. 


Lead me, O thou heavenly friend ; 

Keep a trembling child from sinking. 

O, I cannot bear this glory ! 

Angel brother ! how canst thou ? 

Angel. I will tell thee all my story ; 

I was once as thou art now. 

Child. When some sorrow did befall me, 

Or I felt some strange alarms, 

Then my mother’s voice would call me, 

To the shelter of her arms. 

Now what bids my heart rejoice, 

Clasped in arms I cannot see? 

Hark, I hear a soothing voice 
Sweetly whispering, Come to me, 

Angel. Yes, it calls thee from on high ; 

Come to God’s most holy mountain ; 

Thou hast drunk the stream of life ; — 

I will lead thee to the fountain.” 

* Some dread the thought of being out of the 
body and finding themselves spirits. This is 
wholly without reason. The soul will not 
suffer from losing this body of sin and death ; 
it will hav-e as perfect a consciousness, it 
Avill know where it is, and what is passing be- 
fore it as seems to be the case in a vivid 
dream when the bodily senses are locked in 
slumber. 


THE FEAE OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 73 


As to the natural repugnance which we 
have to the thoughts of burial and the grave, 
it is probable that the soul of a redeemed 
spirit thinks and cares as little concerning 
these things, so far as painful sensations are 
concerned, as we do about our garments when 
we are falling asleep. The vesture which we 
formerly wore gives us no solicitude. It is 
wonderful to hear the sick, long before they 
die, give directions, or express desires, respect- 
ing their burial. So far from thinking of the 
grave as a melancholy place, no doubt the 
departed spirit will often think of it in the 
separate state with pleasure, as the place 
where it is hereafter to receive a form like 
Christ’s ; and the thought of resurrection adds 
greatly to the joys of heaven. 

There is something still which affects the 
minds of many Christians with fear as they 
think of dying; and that is, their appearing 
before God. They cannot imagine the pos- 
sibility of seeing him without distraction ; his 


74 


CATHARINE. 


infinite majesty, and their own sense of unwor- 
thiness, make them afraid. 

But who is God ? Is he the Christian’s 
enemy ? Will he sit like a king on his throne, 
and see his subject come trembling into his 
presence ? Is this the God who loved him ? 
Is this the Saviour that died for him ? Is this 
the Holy Spirit who awakened, converted, 
sanctified, comforted him, and promised to pre- 
sent him faultless before the presence of his 
glory with exceeding joy ? God will not have 
done so much to bring him to heaven, and, 
when he comes there, make his appearance 
before his throne a matter of fear and uncer- 
tainty. He who fell on the neck of the re- 
turning prodigal and kissed him, will not keep 
him at a distance when, with the best robe, 
and the ring, and the shoes, he comes into his 
father’s house. Our first apprehensions of God 
will be happy beyond our present comprehen- 
sion. What an image- have we, in these words, 
of a man helping a child, by the hand, through 
a dangerous or dark way : “ For I the Lord 


THE PEAE OP DEATH ALLEVIATED. 75 


thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto 
thee, Fear not ; I will help thee.” If “ I will 
be with thee,” is the reason which he himself 
assigns why we should not be afraid, why 
should we fear to come into his presence ? 

As to a consciousness of guilt, there is no 
doubt that he who falls asleep in Jesus, with 
reliance on his blood and righteousness, will 
immediately, at death, receive such a conscious- 
ness of being purified from all taint of sin as 
now is beyond our conception. In the lan- 
guage of Scripture, we shall be presented 
faultless before the presence of his glory with 
exceeding joy. For the sake of Christ in 
whom we trust, we shall be received and 
treated as though we had never sinned ; we 
shall say, in the full assurance of pardon, 
righteousness, and peace with God; without 
waiting for the question to be asked in our 
behalf, “ Who is he that condemneth ? ” “ It is 

Christ that died.” 

And if this be so, as it surely is, why may 
not Christians in this world before they die, 


76 


CATHARINE, 


nay, from the first hour of justification by 
faith in Christ, triumph thus in him ? Why 
should their remaining sinfulness, their poor, 
frail, erring nature, which they must carry 
with them to the grave, prevent them from 
having the same joy in God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received 
the atonement ? Every true believer in Jesus 
Christ is warranted in having the same con- 
sciousness of pardon and peace with God, now, 
as after death ; the justifying righteousness of 
Christ is as powerful now as it will be then. 
Some tell us, “ Live a sinless life, and you may 
have this perfect peace.” That is self-righteous- 
ness. It will not he a sinless life which, in the 
moment after death, will make us to be openly 
acknowledged and acquitted ; it will be the 
righteousfiess of Jesus Christ which is by faith ; 
and he who has faith in that righteousness 
may, living as well as dying, here as well as in 
heaven, say, ‘ There is, therefore, now no condem- 
nation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.’ 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 77 


There are several things which may recon- 
cile us to the thought of dying : 

All the people of God since the creation, 
with two exceptions, have died. Of the two 
who were excepted, neither of them was his 
only begotten Son. Those whom God has 
loved peculiarly have not been exempted from 
the stroke of death. Shall we ask exemption 
from that which all the good and great have 
suffered ? Let me die the death of the right- 
eous. If he must find the grave, there wiU I 
be buried. We would not go to heaven but in 
the way which prophets, apostles, mart3nrs 
trod. The footsteps of the flock lead through 
the valley; we will seek no other, no easier, 
way. 

Surely we should be willing to follow our 
great Forerunner* He tasted death for every 
man ; and he could enter into his triumph only 
by dying* We should be more than resigned 
to follow our blessed Lord into the tomb. 
Christ conquered death by dying ; we shall be 


78 


CATHARINE. 


more than conquerors in the same way. If 
we suffer great pain, we cannot suffer more 
than Christ suffered on our account. Suffer- 
ings home in the spirit of Christ are coimted 
as sufferings borne for Christ. “If we suffer, 
we shall also reign with him.” “ If so be that 
we suffer with him, that we may be also glo- 
rified together.” 

Death is a part of the penalty of sin. We 
should, therefore, submit to it, giving up our 
bodies to be destroyed, in fulfilment of that 
sentence which we have so justly incurred — 
“ and imto dust shalt thou return.” He who 
hates sin, and condemns himself for it, and is 
willing to have fellowship with Christ in his 
sufferings for it, as it is most graciously repre- 
sented that we may, will bear the execution of 
God’s righteous sentence with a willing mind. 

Death is the perfecting of our redemption. 
It is the last act of redeeming grace. When 
the Saviour, who says, “ I have the keys of — 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 79 


death/' (i. e.^ no one can die but at the time 
and manner prescribed by me^) takes us out of 
the worlds it is to finish the work of our per- 
sonal salvation. All the circumstances attend- 
ing it will be as deliberately appointed, and as 
carefully watched and directed, as the first 
great act of grace towards us in our regenerar 
tion. He, too, who has provided such pastures 
and streams for us here, in removing us to 
living pastures and to living streams, will, of 
course, see that we go safely through the val- 
ley which must be passed to reach them. It 
will not be a new thing to Christ to see us die. 
He has watched the dying beds of millions of 
his friends, he has had great experience as a 
Shepherd in bringing them through the valley. 

See that chamber in yonder mansion, where 
all the comforts, and some of the luxuries, of 
life, have contributed to prepare for some mys- 
terious event. The garden of Eden failed to 
possess such joys as are there in anticipation, 
and are soon to be made perfect. Every thing 


80 


CATHARINE . 


seems waiting, with silent but thrilling interest, 
for the arrival of an unknown occupant. And 
there is raiment of needle-work, and of fine 
twined linen, and gifts of cunning device, from 
the looms of the old world, and from graceful 
fingers and loving hearts here, every want 
being anticipated, and some wants imagined, 
to gratify the love of satisfying them. And 
now God breathes the breath of life, and a 
living soul begins its deathless career, amidst 
joys and thanksgivings which swell through 
the wide circles of kindred and acquaintance- 
ship. The Holy Spirit, in the process of time, 
renews and sanctifies the soul through the 
blood of the everlasting covenant; and hav- 
ing, through life, walked with God, the day 
arrives when the spirit must return to God 
who gave it. You saw how it was received 
here, at its entrance into the world. You have 
seen what the atonement, and regeneration, 
and sanctification, and providence, and grace, 
have done for it, and with what accumrdated 
love the Father of Spirits, and Eedeemer, and 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 81 


Sanctifier^ mu^t regard it. And now do we 
suppose that the shroud^ and coffin^ and the 
funeral^ and the narrow house^ and the dark- 
nesSj and the solitude and corruption^ and the 
whole dreary and terrible train of death 'and 
the grave, are symbols of its reception into 
heaven, the proper pageantry of its arrival and 
resting place within the veil ? Believe it not ! 
If God prepared in our hearts such a welcome 
for the infant stranger, that even its helpless 
feet were thought of and cared for, surely 
when those feet, wearied in the pilgrimage of 
the strait and narrow way, arrive at heav- 
en’s gate, it must be, it is, amidst rejoicings 
and ministrations of love to which earth has 
no parallel. Let kings and queens prepare a 
royal room for the new-born prince : In my 

Father’s house are many mansions : if it were 
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare 
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
place for you, I will come again, and receive 
you unto myself j that where I am, there ye 
may be also.” 


82 


CATHARINE. 


Could we look into that place, as it stands 
waiting for its occupant from earth, we should 
behold sights which would instantly clothe 
even death with beauty, and make it seem 
now, as it will seem then, a blessed thing 
to die. 

To miss of dying would no doubt be a 
calamity. Dying will be an experience to the 
believer which will be fraught with inestimably 
good things; that is, the act of dying, and 
not merely the being dead. It is no doubt as 
necessary to the nature of the soul, to its psy- 
chology, its soul-life, as the changes of the 
worm, chrysalis, and butterfly, are to the in- 
sect. And thus, as in all other things, where 
sin abounded, grace much more abounds, and 
even death, like a cross, is turned into a minis- 
tration of infinite blessing. 

It is not unsuitable for a dying Christian to 
consider, that he is compassed about with a 
great cloud of witnesses, who themselves have 
died, and who are watching his departure. 



THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 83 


We ought to die with such faith in Jesus^ 
such confidence in God, such confident expec- 
tation and hope, that they will rejoice to see 
us conquer death. Our last conflict should be 
fought in a manner worthy of the company 
and scenes into which we are immediately to 
pass. 

We should not anxiously seek to remove 
entirely from any one, in the course of his life, 
his fears with regard to death, except as We 
may substitute faith for those fears. God 
probably intends them now for the increase of 
faith. .Moreover, when the event of death 
happens, it will be mingled with so much 
mercy as to make the Christian smile at his 
fears. The exhortation of the apostle in view 
of his great discourse of death and resurrec- 
tion is noticeable : Therefore, my beloved 

brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord ; foras- 
much as ye know that your labor is not in 
vain in the Lord.” 

There are cases in which the clouded fac- 


84 


CATHAEINE. 


ulties, or delirium, prevent the full enjoyment 
of a peaceful, happy death. Such cases seem 
painful to friends, but the Shepherd knows 
when it is best to hide the face of a sheep 
which he carries through the valley, and that 
it is sometimes better for the sheep to pass the 
valley in the black and dark night, than when 
daylight, by revealing the horrors of the place, 
would excite fear. All this may safely be left 
to those hands which spoiled death of his sting, 
and to that love which is stronger than death. 
Wherever, and whenever, and in whatever 
manner we may die, it will be under tlje care 
and direction of Him who will no more see us 
in the power of the enemy, than a strong 
and faithful shepherd would suffer a beloved 
member of his flock to fall into the power of 
the lion. 

The last lines of a hymn by Doddridge — 


“Then speechless clasp thee in my arms, 
The antidote of death” — 


are altered, by some compilers, who substitute 


THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. 85 


the word conqueror for antidote. But the author 
saw the truthfulness of his own chosen lan- 
guage, though the word in question be not 
convenient for musical expression. When we 
are already stung by a poisonous creature, we 
take something which proves an antidote to 
the effect of the sting. This medicine is not 
so much a conqueror, as an antidote \ for the 
poison is not developed. But the sting is 
inflicted, and before the poisonous injury is 
felt, the antidote prevents it. These words of 
Christ correspond to this: Verily, verily I 
say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he 
shall never see death.” How often we behold 
this verified ! The spectators see death,” in 
his approach, in his effects ; they weep and 
tremble, while the dear patient does not see ” 
it ; for something else absorbs his thoughts, 
fixes his attention ; he is stung, indeed, by the 
monster; but Christ is an antidote to death, 
causes it to pass by without inflicting pain upon 
the mind, or in any way hurting its victim. 
Dr. Watts illustrates and confirms all this : — 


86 


CATHARINE. 


<< Jesus, the vision of thy face 
Hath overpowering charms ; 

Scarce shall I feel death’s cold embrace, 
If Christ be in my arms.” 


The piece of paper which would suffice 
to write the twenty-third Psalm upon it, would 
not be large enough for a common title deed ; 
and yet that Psalm, if it expresses our experi- 
ence, is worth infinitely more than is conveyed, 
or secured, by all the registries of deeds under 
the sun. We are each of us to see a time 
when we shall feel the truth of this. If but 
these first few words of the Psalm are true 
in my case, if “ the Lord is my Shepherd,” all 
the rest of the Psalm is a record, a promise, a 
pledge, of past, present, and future good. 

There are six things declared by Christ to 
be characteristic of the relation which he and 
his people sustain to each other, as Shepherd 
and the sheep : 

1. “ My sheep hear my voice ; 

2. And I know them ; 

3. And they follow me j 


THE FEAR OP DEATH ALLEVIATED. 87 


4. And I give unto them eternal life ; 

5. And they shall never perish ; 

6. Neither shall any pluck them out of 
my hand.” 

Here we find directions to duty, as well as 
promises of future good. 

Since it is more important how we live than 
how we die, and since death is merely the 
arrival at the end of a journey, the beginning, 
progress, and history of the journey determin- 
ing what the arrival is to be, we shall do well 
to dismiss our borrowed trouble with regard 
to the manner of our departure out of the 
world, and be solicitous only with regard to. 
the right discharge of present duty. We read, 
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints.” The death of every child of his 
is, with God, an object of unspeakable interest; 
his own honor is concerned in it ; its influence 
on survivors is of great importance ; it will be 
among the means by which God accomplishes', 
several, it may be many, purposes of provi- 
dence, but especially of his grace. “ No man 


88 


CATH AEINE. 


dietli to himself.” Great interests are involved 
in his death, beyond his own personal welfare. 
Now, if we have lived for God, he will make 
our death the object of his especial care, 
and will honor it by its being the means of 
promoting his glory. Instead, therefore, of 
gloomy apprehensions as to dying, we should 
cherish the noble wish and aim that Christ 
may be magnified in^ our body, whether it be 
by life or by death. If our life has been a 
walking with God, “Thou art with me” will 
be a perfect warrant, now, and in death, to 


FEAR NO EVIL. 


III. 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 


No bliss mid worldly crowds is bred, 

Like musing on the sainted dead. 

Bishop Mant. 

We seek in vain^ on *earth^ for one who has 
gone to heaven. Though better informed as 
to the objects of our love than they who lin- 
gered about the deserted tomb of the Saviour, 
and were asked, ^^Why seek ye the living 
among the dead,” we .nevertheless find our- 
selves, in our thoughts, searching for them ; 
so difficult is it at once to feel that they are 
w^holly and forever departed. There is an 
affecting and beautifully simple illustration of 
our thoughts and feelings, in this respect, in 
the search w^hich was made for Elijah after his 
translation. Fifty men of the sons of the 
prophets went and stood to view afar off, when 

8 * ‘ ( 89 ) 


90 


CATHARINE. 


Elijah and Elisha stood bj the Jordan. Elisha 
returned alone, and these men could not feel 
reconciled to the loss of their great master. 
They were not persuaded that he had gone to 
heaven, no more to return ; they sought leave 
to seek him, and to recover him : “ Peradven- 
ture,” they said, “ the Spirit of the Lord hath 
taken him up, and cast him upon some moun- 
tain, or into some valley.” Elisha peremp- 
torily refused to grant them leave. They 
were importunate ; and when, at last, it would, 
perhaps, seem like obstinacy in him, or like 
jealousy of their superior love for Elijah, to 
forbid the search, which at the worst would 
only be fruitless, he yielded. Three days they 
explored the valleys, ransacked the thickets, 
groped in the caves, traversed hills, followed 
imaginary trails and footprints, but found him 
not. When they came again to Elisha, he 
said unto them. Did I not say unto you. Go 
not?” 

We cannot become accustomed at once, nor 
for a long time, to the absence of our friend. 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 91 


If his death was sudden, or if it took place 
away from home, or during our absence, we 
expect to see him again ; if a vehicle stops at 
the door, the heart beats with an instantaneous 
hope which dies with its first breath, bringing 
over us a deeper and stronger refluence of sor- 
row. We catch a sight of articles familiarly 
used by a departed friend ; they are identified 
with little passages in his history, or with his 
daily life : is it possible that he is altogether 
and forever disconnected from them ? They 
are the same ; those perishable things, those 
comparatively worthless things, having no 
value at all except as his use of them made 
them precious, retain their shapes and places ; 
but where is he ? and must not he return and 
abide, like them ? 

No, he is gone to heaven. The places 
which knew him shall know him no more for- 
ever. Those things, which have an imperish- 
able value in being associated with his memory, 
are, to him, like the leaves of a past autumn 
to a tree now filled with blossoms. The men- 


92 


CATHARINE. 


tion of every valued possession once inde- 
scribably dear to him, would awaken but 
slight emotions ; even the recent history of 
the dwelling which he built and furnished, 
would be no more to him than the rehearsal to 
a grown person of that which had happened to 
a block house, or card figure, which amused 
his childhood. We walk and sit in the places 
identified with our last remembrances of the 
departed 5 but he is not there; we hallow the 
anniversaries of his birth and death ; but he 
gives us no recognition; we read his letters; 
they make him seem alive ; his voice, his 
smile, his love are there ; and when we have 
finished, nature, exhausted with its weeping, 
sighs, “ And where is he ? ” 

He is gone to heaven. Even the earthly 
house of his tabernacle is dissolved; that part 
of him which was all of which we were cogni- 
zant by our senses, is no more. We could not 
recognize it ; to the earth, out of which it was ] 
taken, it has, by slow degrees, returned, — as j 
though every thing earthly, belonging to him, , 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 93 


‘ must needs die, and be as water spilt on the 
ground, which cannot be gathered up again.’ 
We travel to his birthplace; thefe is the house 
where he was born ; we meet those who grew 
with him side by side ; we are among the 
scenes which were most familiar to him; he 
planted those trees; he collected those pic- 
tures ; there is his portrait, he rested here, he 
studied, he worked, he rejoiced, he wept, in 
these consecrated places ; but did we go think- 
ing to find him there ? “ Did I not say unto 
you. Go not?” 

We shall surely make him real to our 
thoughts, if not to our senses, where he lies 
buried. But we may as well stand upon the 
sea shore, where we had the last look of a sea- 
faring friend, and think that those waters, and 
those sands, and that horizon, will restore him. 
They only serve to open farther the path of 
his departure ; they lead our thoughts away to 
dwell upon him where we imagine him to be. 
Nowhere does heaven seem more real than at 
the grave of a friend; for we know that he 


94 


CATHARINE, 


has not perished, and as we stand on that verge 
of all our fruitless search and expectation, 'we 
are compelled to fix him somewhere in our 
thoughts; but as he is nowhere behind us, we 
look onward and upward. 

Our desire for departed friends, however 
natural and innocent, if it resulted as we 
sometimes would have it, would prove to be 
unwise. 

Suppose that those “ fifty strong men ” had 
found Elijah, or in any way could have pre- 
vented his translation to heaven. With exul- 
tation they would have led him back across the 
Jordan to the company of their friends, amidst 
the thanksgivings of the people. But, alas ! 
for the prophet himself, this would have been 
his loss, even had it proved to be their gain. 
The opening Jordan, cleft in twain by his rapt 
spirit, pressing its way to the skies, had re- 
turned to its course ; and now the fords of the 
river, with its rocky bed, would have required 
his laboring feet to grope their way back to 
his toil; or the anus of men, instead of the 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 95 


chariots of fire and horses of fire^ would have 
borne him again to the dull realities of life; 
and there, rebuking Ahab, and fleeing fVom 
Jezebel, punishing the prophets of Baal, and 
upbraiding the people of God in their idola- 
tries, fasting and faint under junipers, or cover- 
ing his face with his mantle at the still small 
voice of the Lord his God, he would again 
have prayed, 0 Lord God, take away my life, 
for I am no better than my fathers.” ^Let me 
not wait longer for my promised translation; 
let me die as my fathers did ; for wherein am I 
better than they ? ’ So weary had he grown 
of life. Blind and weak do these fifty strong 
men seem to us, in searching for this ascended 
prophet, this traveller over the King’s road in 
royal state, one of the only two who might 
not taste of death ; the companion, in heaven, 
of Enoch, with a body which fills all the ran- 
somed spirits there with joyful expectation, 
because it is a pledge and earnest of ^Hhe adop- 
tion, to wit, the redemption of their bodies.” 
If, amid the new wonders and raptures of the 


96 


CATHARINE. 


heavenly world, he had had one moment to 
look down upon those ‘‘fifty strong men,” as 
they searched for him, he might Avell have 
used, in cheerful irony, something like his old 
upbraidings of the priests near Baal’s altar: 
“Search deeper, ye ‘strong men,’ in the thickets 
and caves ; peradventure I sleep in the brakes, 
and must be aAvaked; call, Avith your fifty 
voices together, that I may be startled from 
my trance ; Avill ye give over till ye bring me 
back to Jericho? Will ye search but three 
days ? Shall I lose the remnant of my life on 
earth ? ” 

And while they grew Aveary and dis- 
couraged, and concluded that, if he should be 
found, it might be in the far distant hills of 
Moab, or the Avilds of Philistia, or they knew 
not where, and Avent back with hearts unsatis- 
fied, and debating Avhether he were yet a 
wanderer upon earth, or whether so impossible 
a thing as they deemed his translation to 
heaven, without dying, had taken place, the 
glorified Elijah was with Abraham, Isaac, and 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 97 


Jacob, with Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David. 
But even Solomon, in all his glory, was not 
arrayed like him. There, with a body like 
unto Christ’s own future glorious body, he sat^ 
with but one compeer — Enoch, and he, tran- 
scending all the hosts of the redeemed in the 
foretasted glories of the resurrection. Adam, 
by whom came death, sees in him that which 
he himself is to share, when by one Man, also, 
shall come the resurrection from the dead. 
Abel, whose feet first trod the dark*, cold 
stream, leaving his murdered body behind him, 
beholds with love and wonder him who passed 
the river of death (^^that ancient river!”) with- 
out dying. Even the Word beheld in him an 
earnest of his own incarnation, resurrection, 
and ascension from Olivet. To-day, our loved 
ones in heaven look upon him, and say, as 
Peter did at this prophet’s visit on Tabor, 
(when he spoke of tabernacles there — ^^one for 
Elias,”) Master, it is good for us to be here.” 
But we, like the fifty strong men,” would 
find them and bring them back ; and, like 

9 


98 


CATHARINE. 


Peter, would build tabernacles to retain them. 
The family circle is gathered together at some 
birthday or festival, and, perhaps, we long for 
the departed, and think that they long for us ; 
and we would bring them back, and place them 
in their deserted chairs. We are strong 
men ” in the power of grief, and in our wishes ; 
but the search for Elijah is the counterpart 
of our vain desires and most unreasonable 
sorrow. 

When our friends have gone to heaven, it is 
not apt to be heaven so much as earthly sor- 
row, Avhich fills our minds. Happily, we have 
been taught to believe, and we do generally 
believe, that the souls of the righteous enter 
immediately into glory ; that their happiness 
is perfect, though not completed ; they are as 
happy as disembodied spirits can be ; unspeak- 
ably happier than they were here, but still not 
in full possession of those sources of pleasure 
which they mil receive when their bodies are 
raised, and their whole natures are made com- 
plete. ’But to die is gain ; ” it is to depart 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 99 


and to be with Christ, which is far better;” it is 
entering “ into the joy of their Lord.” That 
dreary thought of sleeping after death till the 
day of judgment ; the idea that Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, became insensible at death, 
and that the last thing which Jacob, for exam- 
ple, knew, was Joseph’s kiss, and the next 
thing which he will know will be the arch- 
angel’s trump, the interval of many thousands 
of years being a perfect blank in his existence, 
is so unlike the benevolent order of God’s 
providence in nature and grace, that it cannot 
gain much credence with believers in the 
simple representations of the Bible. What a 
mockery Elijah’s translation seems, upon that 
theory ! Whither was he translated ? Did the 
chariots of fire, and the horses of fire, convey 
him to a dreamless sleep of thousands of 
years? Was that pomp, that emblazonry, all 
that fiery pageant, a deception signifying noth- 
ing but that the greatest of prophets was to 
begin a stupid slumber, which, this day, under 
a heaven with not one redeemed soul in it, and 


100 


CATHARINE. 


in a world where there is every thing to be done 
for God and men, holds him, and every other 
dead saint, in a useless suspension of his con- 
sciousness, and, indeed, for so many ages, anni- 
hilation ? Poor economy in the dispensation of 
overflowing love to intelligent beings, — we say 
it with submission, — does this seem to be ; nor 
can we think that, in the case of Elijah, it was 
this which was heralded by horses and chariots 
of fire. Chariots and horses are emblems of 
flight ; but if sleep were descending upon the 
hero of the prophetic age, twilight would more 
appropriately have drawn her soft veil over 
nature, birds would have begun their vespers, 
clouds would have put on their changing, pen- 
sive colors, while cadences of music breathed 
by the winds would have shed lethargic influ- 
ences into the scene. Inspiration does not 
trifle with us by really meaning such a prepara- 
tion for a sleep of ages, and yet informing us, 
in so many words, that “ the Lord would take 
up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind.” No ; 
going to heaven is not going to sleep, and 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 101 


going to sleep is not going to heaven. Sleep 
and death are used figuratively for each oth- 
er^ according to the laws of language, which 
describes appearances without regard to scien- 
tific truth, as in speaking of the sun’s rising, for 
example, and the going down of the sun ; but 
to fall asleep in Jesus is to awake in heaven ; 
to be absent from the body is to be present 
with the Lord. This we all believe ; and may 
we never be moved away from this cheering, 
animating hope. Yet how little power has this 
belief and hope upon our feelings and con- 
duct! for our Christian graces partake of the 
same imperfection which characterizes our 
whole nature ; the soil is poor in which they 
grow ; the seasons are short, the climate cold ; 
they do not reach maturity. It is instructive 
to notice how men who have had the very best 
advantages, and the greatest knowledge, are, 
nevertheless, prone to unbelief Christ ap- 
peared to his disciples, and upbraided them 
because they believed not them which said he 
was risen. Their incredulity strikes us as mar- 

9 * 


102 


CATHARINE, 


vellous. They were not the first, nor the last, 
whose want of faith is a marvel. These sons 
of the prophets in Elisha’s day were equally 
slow to believe. They themselves had said to 
him, “Knowest thou that the Lord will take 
away thy master from thy head to-day?” Elisha 
came back to them from the scene of the 
translation. Of course he told them what had 
happened, describing minutely the whole of 
that preternatural scene ; he probably related 
the conversation which Elijah had with him as 
they walked ; and this inspired companion of 
the departed prophet, having himself no doubt 
that Elijah had gone to heaven, so instructed 
these sons of the prophets. But how hard it 
is for the things which are unseen and eternal 
to seize and hold our minds ! how readily we 
yield to surmises, rather than admit the clear 
disclosures of spiritual things ! Straightway 
these sons of the prophets, who should have 
retired each to his secret place, for contempla- 
tion and prayer, and, in the solemn assembly, 
should have directed the thoughts of each 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 103 


Other and of the people to the instructive 
lessons suggested by the departure of Elijah 
to heaven, were making up an exploring par- 
ty, to prove that their illustrious chief had 
met with some disaster in being left forlorn 
upon some mountain, or in a valley • that the 
Spirit of God had entranced him, and that his 
weary feet, instead of treading the pavement 
of heaven, were ensnared in some dark place ; 
and so, in pity for him, and with filial love, 
they would seek him, and bring him back to 
Jericho ! 

If we had clear and strong faith, our joy 
at the thought of a glorified spirit, however 
necessary its presence to us here, would tran- 
scend all our sorrows; the streaming beams 
of sunshine would irradiate our weeping; we 
should think more of his happiness than of 
our discomfort. Instead of departed spirits 
falling asleep, it is we who have a spirit of 
slumber. 0 that we might walk by faith with 
glorified spirits before the throne, instead of 
remanding them, — as it seems we sometimes 


104 


CATHARINE. 


would do, if we could, — to the ignorance and 
infirmity of our condition. 

Our feelings towards the departed are the 
same as towards other prohibited things. Many 
are continually seeking for pleasures which 
God has taken away, or is purposely with- 
holding from them. Let any one look at the 
history of his feelings, and see if his state of 
mind be not one of perpetual expectation of 
some form of happiness yet to arrive ; an ideal 
of bliss, some prefigured condition, in which 
contentment and peace are to abide ; wdiile 
the discovery that he is not to have it would 
make him inconsolably miserable. Our search 
for lost joys, or for those which God is not 
prepared, or not disposed, to give us, and the 
happiness which he desires rather to give us, 
and to have us seek, are severally represented 
to us by this search for Elijah, and by Elijah 
himself, who is, meanwhile, at God’s right 
hand. At his right hand are pleasures forever- 
more ; but some, in the ardor and strength 
of their affections, are seeking for that which 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 105 


they will never obtain^ and t^iat is, happiness 
independent of God. Some tell us that they 
mean to make the most of life, and to be 
happy while they live ; therefore, begone, re- 
flection! religion is not for the spring-tide of 
youth ; mirth and merry days are for the 
young; soberness and the russet garb of au- 
tumn belong to the decline of life, which 
certainly to them, they think, is far off; — as 
though every material necessary for their last, 
long sleep, may not at this moment be in the 
warerooms and shops; as though they could 
boast themselves even of one to-morrow, and 
knew what the to-morrows of many years 
would bring forth. The Bible is against their 
way of thinking and manner of life; and to 
push aside the Bible in our search after any 
thing, is a certain sign of being in the Avrong. 
And all this with the mistaken belief that to 
love God, and to be loved of him, is not the 
greatest, the only satisfying good, — the God 
that framed the voice for that music which 
charms a circle of friends, and made those 


106 


CATHARINE. 


curious fingers, and gave them all that cunning 
skill which sheds delight on others, and em- 
powered that heart to swell with such con- 
ceptions of earthly pleasure; — and that to love 
him, and be loved by him, is the direst neces- 
sity of our being, to be postponed as long as 
possible, and then to be accepted as a last 
resort and the less of two evils. Where is 
the Lord God of Elijah, the God of all power 
and might, the God of all grace and consola- 
tion, the God of our life, and the length of our 
days? Banished from the world which these 
friends have made for themselves ; an in- 
truder into the charmed circle in which the 
wand of fancy has enclosed them ; a dreaded 
power standing over them, to snatch away the 
only bliss which they ever expect to enjoy. 
0 gilded butterflies, made for a few days of 
sunshine, and doomed to perish at the first 
touch of frost! had they no souls; were there 
no hereafter, no heaven, no hell ; if it would 
not be as desirable to be happy millions of 
years from to-day, as now; if they were not 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 107 


including all their hopes and efforts to be 
happy within a handbreadth of time, and lia- 
ble to lose even that, — the wise ruan might 
stop with saying, ^^Kejoice, 0 young man, in 
thy youth ; and let thy heart cheer thee in the 
days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of 
thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes ; ” 
but the infinite future compels him to add, 
^^but know thou, that for all these things 
God will bring thee into judgment.” Such 
are the motives by which, in their present 
condition, and with their present views, they 
are most likely to be affected ; yet some of 
them, we are glad to say, in their best moods, 
are also affected and influenced aright when 
we tell them that, even if our existence ter- 
minated at death, the joys which are now to 
be found in loving and serving God, are better 
than the pleasures of sin for a season. 

There is not one of us who has not lost a 
friend, a schoolmate, a companion of early life, 
one who has disappeared from our side, a fre- 
quent associate in the business of life, or one 


108 


CATHARINE. 


whom we have been accustomed to see in the 
places of business ; and perhaps a member of 
our family circle. 

Now, it is profitable to consider that the 
same thoughts which we have of them, others 
will ere long have concerning us. What would 
make us satisfied and happy to know respect- 
ing them ? What are we glad to say of their 
preparation for an eternal state ? What would 
we have had that preparation be ? In what 
respects better or different ? Where do we 
love to assign them their places ? And what is 
it pleasant to believe are their thoughts of us, 
of earth, of eternity, of the gospel, of this life 
as a season of preparation for heaven ? We 
shall soon be the subjects of the same contem- 
plations in the minds of others. The hosts of 
that long procession, of which we are the part 
now passing over the stage, are urging and 
pressing us from behind, and we must go down, 
as others have before us, — our love, our envy, 
our hatred perish, — and we no more have any 
portion in aU that is done under the sun. 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 109 


We must give up happiness as the great 
aim and end of existence, and, instead of it, 
take this for our supreme endeavor and chief 
end — the conscientious performance of our 
duty to God, and to others. We are never 
really happy till we cease to expect happiness 
from the things of this world. As soon as we 
begin to be satisfied with God, and find that 
to think of God, to love him, to trust in him, 
to serve him, is happiness enough, we attain 
to solid peace ■, and then, turning and following 
the sun, all desirable pleasure pursues us and 
solicits us, like our shadows the more eagerly 
and steadily the more that we flee from them, 
and the less that we turn ourselves to them. 
We never can be happy by searching for 
happiness ; but Avhen we give up this search, 
and duty becomes the motto of life, we are 
inevitably happy. God must satisfy us — his 
personal love to us, communion with him, 
the contemplation of his character, ways, and 
works ; in short, the consciousness of hav- 
ing him for a personal friend, disclosing all 
10 


110 


CATHARINE. 


our thoughts to him, looking to him and wait- 
ing for him in all things, and, as the Bible 
expresses it, “ walking ” with him. Then he 
makes our wants his care ; and while he leads 
us through strange paths which we should not 
have chosen, it is to bring us, at the last, into 
a condition which will make us happy chiefly 
from the reflection that God himself appointed 
it. Disappointments, of which we were fore- 
warned, and which we had every reason to 
expect, embitter that life whose only sources 
of happiness are confined to this world, and do 
not relate to God. Making him the supreme 
source of our happiness, we give up undue 
sorrow for departed friends, feeling that they 
are removed from all need of our commiser- 
ation, and all power to afibrd us comfort and 
help, any further than their example and re- 
membered words instruct us. We shall then 
be chiefly concerned to know and to do the 
Avill of God, to watch over the interests of our 
souls, preparing for life, with its important 
duties, and storing up those recollections which 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. Ill 


are to occupy our thoughts in the review of 
life beyond the grave. We shall bear in mind 
that we^ too, are to have survivors, to whom it 
will be the greatest favor if we leave a good 
assurance, based upon their remembrance of 
our piety, that we are happy, thus constraining 
them to follow us to heaven. We shall do 
well if we habitually say, as Elijah said to 
Elisha, The Lord hath sent me to Jordan ; ” 
and that we are one day to be taken up and 
conveyed to that same heaven whither Elijah 
went, and from which he came to meet Christ 
and to speak with him of his decease which 
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. What 
if we knew that some day, not far distant, 
flaming chariots and horses, over our dwelling, 
would wait to bring us home to God ? The 
ministering spirits are already designated who 
are to perform this office for those who are 
heirs of salvation. What, then, are we search- 
ing for among the dark, gloomy valleys of 
sorrow, or on the hills of earthly vision ? If 
our friends are with Christ, we must be pre- 


112 


CATHARINE. 


pared to be with him, or lose their society ; 
and that loss will be worse than the first. 

Sometimes we feel as though we were sail- 
ing away from our departed friends, leaving 
them behind us. Not so ; we are sailing 
towards them ; they went forward, and we are 
nearer to them now than yesterday ; and the 
night is far spent ; the day is at hand. If life, 
or any undue portion, be spent in grief which 
unfits us for duty, we shall see, in heaven, how 
much better it would have been had we had 
more faith, and had lived more as then we 
should desire our surviving friends to live, 
quickened and strengthened by the assured 
hope of our being in heaven, and by the ex- 
pectation of meeting us there. 

But there is one kind of sorrow and desire 
for departed friends which, in its consequences, 
is greatly to be deplored. Some refuse to be- 
come decided Christians, because their friends, 
they think, were not believers in the faith 
which these surviving friends are now per- 
suaded is the truth. To embrace this truth, as 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 113 


essential to salvation^ it is felt^ will be to con- 
demn these departed friends ; and some have, 
in so many words, declared that they preferred 
to share the fate of their companions, or chil- 
dren, who gave no evidence of having accepted 
the gospel, as it is now viewed by these sur- 
vivors. 

How sad would be such a catastrophe as 
this : The departed friend, in the secret exer- 
cises of his mind, and by the good Spirit of 
God, may have been, at the last hour, pre- 
vailed upon to accept the offers of salvation 
by a crucified Kedeemer. He gave no in- 
timation of this, owing, perhaps, to bodily 
weakness, or to fear and distrust ; but, through 
infinite mercy, he was saved by faith in 
the Lamb of God. The surviving friend, per- 
suaded of the truth, refuses to comply with 
it, and loves the departed friend more than 
Christ, or truth and duty ; and then, dying, 
finds that the departed friend is saved, through 
that very faith, which the other refused from 

idolatrous attachment to the departed ; and 

10 * 


114 


CATHARINE. 


now they are separated; whereas, had the 
survivor forsaken all for Christ and the truth, 
he would have had a hundred fold in this world, 
and, in the world to come, would have found 
that friend whom he would, as it were, have 
forsaken for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s. It 
is safe, it is best, for each of us to do his duty, to 
walk by the light afforded us, and not to make 
a creature our standard, nor our chief good. 

If we meet certain of our friends at the end 
of their search after pleasure, having forgotten 
their God and Saviour, and see them disap- 
pointed, and utterly destitute of any thing to 
make them happy forever, and all because they 
would not forego their chase after unsatisfying 
pleasure, — there is many a faithful Christian 
friend, whose example and advice they disre- 
garded, who could then reply, “ Did I not say 
unto you. Go not ? ” 

In the name of some unspeakably dear to 
you, we say, “We are journeying unto the 
place of which the Lord said, I will give it 
you ; come thou with us, and we will do thee 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 115 


good ; for the Lord hath spoken good concern- 
ing Israel.” 

Our friends who have gone to heaven ought 
not to be invested, in our thoughts, with such 
melancholy associations as we are prone to 
connect with them. To die is gain. Trouble, 
and sorrow, and the dark river, interpose be- 
tween us and heaven; but in the prospect 
which has opened before the eye of the re- 
deemed spirit, there is nothing but widening 
and brightening glory. We must not seek for 
consolation at their departure by bringing them 
back, in our thoughts, to our dwellings, but 
by going forward, in faith, ourselves, to their 
dwelling. There is much to encourage and 
help us in doing so, in the following lines, 
which may be read with profit upon each anni- 
versary of a friend’s departure to heaven, until 
surviving friends read them at the returning 
anniversaries of our own entrance into the joy 
of our Lord; — 


116 


CATHARINE . 


“A Year in Heayen. 

A YEAR UNCALENDARED ; for what 
Hast thou to do with mortal time ? 

Its ^ole of moments entereth not 
That circle, mystic and sublime, 

Whose unreached centre is the throne 
Of Him, before whose awful brow. 
Meeting eternities are known 
As but an everlasting now. 

The thought removes thee far away, — 

Too far, — beyond my love and tears ; 
Ah, let me hold thee, as I may ; 

And count thy time by earthly years. 

A YEAR OF BLESSEDNESS ; wherein 

Not one dim cloud hath crossed thy soul 
No sigh of grief, no touch of sin. 

No frail mortality’s c.onti;ol; 

Nor once hath disappointment stung, 

Nor care, world-weary, made thee pine ; 
But rapture, such as human tongue 
Hath found no language for, is thine. 
Made perfect at thy passing, who 
Can sum thy added glory now ? 

As on, and onward, upward, through 
The angel ranks that lowly bow. 
Ascending still from height to height 
Unfaltering, where rapt spirits trod, 

Nor pausing ’mid their circles bright. 

Thou tendest inward unto God. 


THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. 117 


A YEAR OF PROGRESS, in the lore 

That’s only learned in heaven ; thy mind 
Unclogged of clay, and free to soar. 

Hath left the realms of doubt behind, 

And wondrous things which finite thought 
In vain essayed to solve, appear 
To thy untasked inquiries, fraught 
With explanation strangely clear. 

Thy reason owns no forced control. 

As held it here in needful thrall ; 

God’s mysteries court thy questioning soul, 
And thou may’st search and know them all. 

A YEAR OF LOVE ; thy yearning heart 
Was always tender, e’en to tears, 

With sympathies, whose sacred art 
Made holy all thy cherished years ; 

But love, whose speechless ecstasy 
Had overborne the finite, now 
Throbs through thy being, pure and free. 

And burns upon thy radiant brow. 

For thou those hands’ dear clasp hast felt. 
Where still the nail-prints are displayed ;• 
And thou before that face hast knelt. 

Which wears the scars the thorns have made. 

A YEAR WITHOUT THEE ; I had thought 
My orphaned heart would break and die. 

Ere time had meek quiescence brought. 

Or soothed the tears it could not dry ; 


118 


CATHARINE. 


And yet I live, to faint and quail 
Before the human grief I bear ; 

To miss thee so, then drown the wail 
That trembles on my lips in prayer. 
Thou praising, while I vainly thrill ; 
Thou glorying, while I weakly pine ; 
And thus between thy heart and mine 
The distance ever widening still, 


A YEAR OF TEARS TO ME ; to thee 
The end of thy probation’s strife, 

The archway to eternity. 

The portal of immortal life ; 

To me the pall, the bier, the sod ; 

To thee the palm of victory given. 

Enough, my heart ; thank God ! thank God ! 
That thou hast been a year in heaven.* 


IV. 


THE SILENCE. OF THE'LEAD. 


Dear, beauteous Death, the jewel of the just, > 

Shining nowhere but in the dark. 

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 

Could men outlook that mark ! 

He that hath found some fledged bird’s nest, may know, 

At first sight, if the bird be flown ; 

But what fair field, or grove, he sings in now, 

That is to him unknown. 

Henry Vaughan. 

The silence of the dead is one of the most 
impressive and affecting things connected with 
the separate state of the soul. We hear the 
voice of a dying friend, in some last wish, or 
charge, or prayer, or farewell, or in some ex- 
clamation of joy or hope ; and though years 
are multiplied over the dead, that voice returns 
no more in any moment of day or night, of 
joy or sorrow, of labor or rest, in life or in 
death. 

<I19) 


120 


CATHARINE. 


The voices of creation return to us at peri- 
odical seasons. The early spring bird startles 
us with her unexpected note ; the winter is 
over and gone. BuL no periodical change 
brings back the voices of departed friends. A 
member of the family embarks on a long voy- 
age ; but, be it ever so long, if life^ is spared, 
the letter is received, in which the written 
words, so characteristic of him, recall his looks 
and the tones of his voice. Years pass away, 
and the sound of his footsteps is at the door 
again, and his voice is heard in the dwelling. 
But of the dead there comes no news ; from 
the grave no voice, from the separate state no 
message. With our desire to speak once more 
to the departed, and to hear them speak, we 
feel that they must have an intense desire to 
speak to us. We wonder why they do not 
break the silence. There is so much of which 
they could inform us ; it would be such a relief, 
we think, to have one word from them, 
assuring us that they arrived safely, and are 
happy, and, above all things, granting us their 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 


121 


forgiveness for the sins which now have awa- 
kened sorrow. But we wait, and look, and 
wonder, in vain. 

When we think of the number of the dead, 
this silence appears impressive. Their number 
far exceeds that of the living. Could they be 
assembled together, and could those now alive 
be set over against them, upon an immense 
plain, to a spectator from above we should be 
a small company in comparison with them. 
Should they lift up their voices together, ours 
could not be heard. Yet from that vast mul- 
titude we never hear a voice, — not even a 
whisper, — nor see a sign. Standing in a cem- 
etery a few miles distant from the great city, 
you hear the low, muffled roar from the streets 
and bridges, reminding you of the living tide 
which is coursing along those highways. But 
with eight thousand of the dead around you 
in that cemetery, and a world of spirits, which 
no man can number, just within the veil, you 
hear nothing from them. No one comes back 

to tell us of his experience ; no warning, nor 
11 


122 


CATHARINE. 


comfort, nor counsel, ever reaches our ears. 
Whatever our trouble, or our joy may be, our 
need or prosperity ; however long and painful 
the absence of the departed may have been ; 
however lonely we may feel, wishing for some 
word of remembrance and love ; and though 
we visit the grave day by day, and call on the 
name of the departed, and use every art of 
endearment to pierce the veil between us, 
— there is the, same determined, cold, lasting 
silence. “ To go down into silence ” is a scrip- 
tural phrase for the state of the dead. 

Our feelings seek relief from those vague, 
uncertain thoughts respecting the dead which 
we find occasioned by the gentle manner in 
which death most frequently occurs. The 
breath is shorter and shorter, and finally ceases, 
yet so imperceptibly, that, for a moment, it is 
uncertain whether the last breath has expired. 
There is no visible trace of the outgoing of 
the soul. Could we see the spirit leave the 
body, we should feel that one of the mysteries 
of death is solved. Could we trace its flight 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 


123 


into the air, could we watch its form as it 
disappeared among the clouds, or melted away 
in a distance greater than the eye can com- 
prehend, we should not, perhaps, ask for a 
word to assure us respecting the state of the 
soul. But there is no more perfect delinea- 
tion of the appearances which death presents 
to us, than in the following inspired descrip- 
tion: “As the waters fail from the sea, and 
the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth 
down and riseth not; till the heavens he no 
more they shall not awake, nor he raised out 
of their sleep.” We see the lying down, the 
fixedness of the posture, the utter disregard, 
in the cold remains, of every thing which 
passes before them; and these remains are 
like the channels of a river, or the flats of the 
sea, when the tide has utterly forsaken them. 
The soul is like those vanished waters, as to 
any manifestation that it continues to exist. 

We miss the departed from his accustomed 
places; we expect to meet him at certain 
hours of the day; those hours return, and he 


124 


CATHARINE. 


is not there ; we start as we look upon his 
vacant place at the table, or around the even- 
ing lamp, or in the circle at prayers. No 
tongue can describe that blank, that chasm, 
which is made by death in the family circle, 
or the variations in the tones of sorrow and 
desire with which those words are secretly 
repeated, day after day, and night after night : 
“ And where is he ? ” 

Is there any assignable cause for the silence 
of the dead ? 

We cannot, with certainty, assign the rea- 
son for it, and we do not know why the dead 
are not suffered to reappear to us. We can, 
nevertheless, see great wisdom and use in , this 
silence, and in our perfect ignorance respecting 
their state. 

It is the arrangement of divine Providence that 
faith, and not sight, shall influence our characters 
and conduct.-^\i would be inconsistent with 
this great law if we should see or hear from 
the dead. 


THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD. 125 


The object of God^ in his dealings with ns^ is 
to exalt the Bible as our instructor. If men 
were left to visions and voices, in which there 
is so much room for mistake and delusion, the 
confusion of human affairs would be inde- 
scribably dreadful. Every man would have his 
vision, or his message, the proof, or the correct- 
ness, of which would necessarily be concealed 
from others, who might have contrary direc- 
tions, or impressions; and human affairs would 
then be like a sea, in which many rivers ran 
across each other. 

It would not be safe for departed spirits to 
be intrusted with the power of communicating 
with the living. Though they know far more 
than we, yet their information is limited ; and, 
especially, if they should undertake to counsel 
us about the future, as they would do in their 
earnestness to help us, we can easily see that, 
being finite as they are, and unable to look into 
the future, they might involve us in serious 
mistakes, either by their ignorance, or by the 

contrariety of their information. Far better is 
11 * 


126 


CATHARINE. 


it for man to look only to God, who sees the 
end from the beginning, with whom is no va- 
riableness, and who is able, as our anxious 
friends would not be, to conceal from us the 
future, or any information respecting it, which 
it would be an injury for us to know. Should 
we be informed of certain things which will 
happen to us years hence, either the expecta- 
tion of them would engross our attention, and 
hinder our usefulness, or the fear of them 
would paralyze effort, and destroy health, if not 
life. Borrowed trouble, even now, constitutes 
a large part of our unhappiness ; but the cer- 
tain knowledge of a sorrow approaching us 
with unrelenting steps, would spread a pall 
over every thing ; while prosperity, far in the 
prospect, would tempt us to forget our depend- 
ence upon God, and would weaken the motives 
to patient continuance in well doing for its 
own sake. 

Then, with regard to any assurance which 
the dead would give us about truth and duty, 
we need not their help. For the dead can tell 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 127 


US substantially no more than we find recorded 
in the Bible. They would describe heaven to 
us, and speak of future punishment. But sup- 
pose that they did. What language would 
they use more graphic, or more intelligible to 
us, than the language of the Bible ? Whatever 
they said, we should feel obliged to compare it 
with the Scriptures ; if it should be according 
to them, we do not need it. Besides, the ap- 
pearance to us of departed friends, would, in 
many cases, only operate on our fears. But 
the Bible pleads with us by many gentle 
motives, as well as by warnings and terrific 
descriptions, and sets before us numberless 
inducements to repent, which the whole world 
of the dead, uninsj^ired, could not so well fur- 
nish. The appearance and words of a spirit 
would excite us, and make us afraid ; we could 
not feel and act as well, under such influences, 
as we can under the calm, dispassionate, con- 
vincing, and persuasive influences of the Bible. 
One of the most intelligent and cultivated 
of women, the wife of a missionary in Turkey, 


128 


CATHARINE. 


in her last sickness, having heard her husband 
read to her several times, from the Pilgrifti’s 
Progress, respecting the Kiver of Death and 
the Celestial City, at last said to him, as he was 
opening the book, “ Read to me out of the 
Bible ; that soothes me ; I can hear it for a 
long time ; but even Bunyan agitates me.” 

As much as we suppose it would comfort us 
to have intercourse with the dead, it is easy to 
see that the great law of the divine govern- 
ment by which faith, and not sight, is the ap- 
pointed means of our spiritual good, would be 
violated, could the dead speak with us. We 
are to trust in the mercy and the justice of 
God. This we could not so well do, if we 
knew things about which, now, we are obliged 
to exercise faith. The inspired Word, the only 
and the all-sufficient rule of faith and duty, is 
a better guide than the voices of the dead. 

An interesting illustration of this is given by 
one who witnessed the appearance of departe4 
spirits on a certain most interesting occasion. 
Two illustrious men of the Jewish line, 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 129 


appeared and spake with Christ. The person 
of the Saviour experienced a remarkable trans- 
figuration^ assuring his human soul of the joy 
set before him ; the presence of the celestial 
spirits^ also, confirming his assurance respecting 
the separate existence of souls, and the whole 
transaction being designed to strengthen the 
faith of the disciples, and of the world, in the 
Saviour. 

But what comparative value does one of the 
inspired witnesses of this scene give to this 
heavenly communication, these voices of the 
dead, and this visit from the heavenly world ? 
Does he build his faith upon it, as upon a 
corner stone? No; but after telling us, in 
glowing language, respecting this most wonder- 
ful and impressive scene, he says, We have 
also a more sure word of prophecy; where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a 
light that shineth in a dark place, until the day 
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” 
That sm’e word, — more sure ” than the testi- 
mony of departed spirits, or than voices from 


130 


CATHARINE. 


the other world, — is the Bible ; for he imme- 
diately adds, “ For the prophecy came not in 
old time by the will of man, but holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost.” The testimony of departed spirits, 
even of Moses and Elijah, might be, after all, 
only “ the will of man ; ” but in the Bible men 
have spoken as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. 

As to its being a comfort, in any case, that 
departed friends should speak to us, it is doubt- 
ful whether it would prove to be so. Sup- 
pose them to utter words of endearment ; this 
would open the fountains of grief in our souls 
afresh. Suppose them to tell us that they are 
safe and happy ; it would be far better for us, 
in many cases, to hope respecting this, than to 
know it ; the knowledge of it might make us 
careless and too confident about ourselves ; 
we should be less inclined to shun the errors 
of these friends, to guard against their imper- 
fections, and to fear lest a promise being left 
us of entering into that rest, any of us should 


THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD. 


131 


seem to come short of it. One of the most 
inconvenient and uneasy states of mind, is that 
of insatiable curiosity — longing to know that 
which is concealed, dispirited at the delay of 
information, refusing effort except under the 
spur of absolute assurance. Far better and 
more healthful is that state of mind which per- 
forms present duty, and leaves the rest to the 
unfolding hand of time ; which disdains that 
prying, inquisitive disposition which is all eye 
and ear, which lives on excitement, which has 
no self-respect, nor regard for any thing but 
to know something yet unknown. If God 
suffered the dead to speak to ns, we should 
always be on the watch for some sign ; we 
should be unfitted for the common, practical 
duties of life ; we should be superstitious, vis- 
ionary, fanatical, timorous. As it is, how eager 
we are to pry into the future, or into things 
purposely hidden from us ! If it were cer- 
tainly known that one had communication 
with the dead, or if we had good reason to 
expect such communications, labor would be 


132 


CATHARINE. 


neglected, faith, prayer, hope, confidence in 
God would decrease, the Bible would be un- 
dervalued through a superior regard to a dif- 
ferent mode of revelation, and we should live, 
as it were, among the tombs. A morbid state 
of feeling would pervade our minds, and the 
world would be full of enchantments, necro- 
mancy, and cunning craftiness. Blessed be 
God for the silence of the dead ! We are glad 
that our weak and foolish hearts, so prone to 
love the creature more than the Creator, are 
broken off, by the impenetrable veil of death, 
from all connection with the departed. The 
salutary influences of death on survivors would 
be greatly lessened if our connection and com- 
munication with them were continued. God 
is our chief good, not our friends, nor our chil- 
dren ; he shuts them up in silence from us, to 
see if we can say, “ Whom have I in heaven 
but thee ? And there is none upon earth that 
I desire besides thee.” The painful effect upon 
our feelings, and upon our nervous system, of 
separations from departed friends, is involun- 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 133 


tary and natural ; but to cherish our griefs, to 
spend much time in melancholy moods, or in 
poring over the memorials of the departed, so 
as to excite and indulge morbid feelings, is not 
Christian nor wise. 

While this is true, and there is much immod- 
erate and irrational grief, the disposition, with 
many, is to forget the dead as soon as possible, 
and forever. Some need to think far more of 
the deceased. They should remember that the 
dead are alive ; that no doubt they think of 
them ; and that, instead of being separated 
farther and farther from the deceased by the 
lapse of time, they are every day coming 
nearer and nearer to them, and they must 
meet again. 

It is well for us frequently to remember that 
the silence of the dead is no true exponent of 
their real state. Incoherent and wild as the 
thoughts and feelings sometimes are, under the 
distracting influence of affliction and death, 
and all uncertain as we are about the de- 
parture of the soul, we are not left without 
12 


134 


CATHAEINE. 


sure and most satisfying information respecting 
the separate state. 

There is no annihilation. The life of the 
soul is not extinguished like the flame of a 
lamp. Existence is not that lingering, twin- 
kling spark which it seems to be in the mo- 
ments preceding death. To be absent from 
the body, for a Christian, is to be present with 
the Lord ; to die is gain ; to depart and be 
with Christ is far better. When the dust re- 
turns to the earth as it was, the spirit ascends 
to God, who gave it. The soul is more vig- 
orous and active than when shut up in the 
body, because a higher form of life is re- 
quired in being with God and angels. We 
are told that the pious dead are "the spirits 
of just men made perfect.” All imperfection 
arising from bodily organization, as well as 
from our fallen state here, has ceased, and the 
soul has become a pure spirit, in a spiritual 
world, engaged in spiritual pursuits. Memory 
is awake ; every perceptive faculty is in per- 
fection ; the soul that sees far distant places, 


THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD. 135 


in a moment, in sleep, — that holds converse 
with other, but absent, minds, while the body 
is sealed in slumber, — not only does not need 
the present body to make it capable of percep- 
tion, but when escaped from this material con- 
dition, and from dependence upon these bodily 
senses, which now are like colored, glass to 
the eyes, it will be far more capable than be- 
fore ; though the spiritual body, at the last, will 
advance it to a still higher condition. Its judg- 
ment is sound, its sensibilities are quick, its 
thoughts are full of unmixed joy. But we 
probably could not understand the nature of 
its employments, nor its discoveries, nor its sen- 
sations, any further than we now do from the 
word of God. We have no record, nor tra- 
dition, of any disclosures made by Lazarus, or 
the widow of Nain’s son, or the dead who 
came out of their graves at the crucifixion, 
and went into the Holy City, and appeared 
unto many. The only way to account for this 
seems to be, to suppose that they told nothing 
of what they had seen or heard. Had they 


136 


CATHARINE. 


made any disclosures of the unseen world, 
those disclosures would never have been for- 
gotten. They would have been preserved in 
the memories of men, to be handed down from 
age to age. Paul himself had no very distinct 
recollection of what he had heard and seen in 
Paradise ; for he says that he could not tell 
whether he was in the body or out of the body. 
We think in words, which at the time are in- 
telligible, but we often fail when we try to pro- 
duce them ; so that Paul’s expression, very sin- 
gular in each part of it, — heard unspeakable 
words,” — may refer to the impressions made on 
his own mind in his revelations, as not possible 
to be clothed in speech. It may have been 
with him, upon his return to the body, and with 
the risen dead, as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, 
who knew that he had dreamed, and the dream 
had made powerful impressions on his mind, 
but the dream itself had departed from him. 
Now, if the bodily senses, or the soul while in 
the body, cannot comprehend so as to express 
what has been seen in heaven, it is doubtful if 


THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD. 137 

we could understand it if it should be revealed 
by a spirit from heaven. The Bible has prob- 
ably given us as definite information about 
heaven as we could possibly understand — cer- 
tainly as much as God judges best for our 
usefulness and happiness. But we must prob- 
ably learn an unearthly language, and, in* 
order to this, unearthly ideas, before we can 
understand the things which are within the 
veil. The modes of communication in heaven 
between people of strange languages, whether 
by a common speech, or by the power given 
to the disciples at the day of Pentecost, or by 
intuition, are not made knoAvn to us ; but this 
wonderful faculty of language, holding an in- 
termediate place between spirit and matter, 
has, of course, a corresponding faculty in the 
world of spirits. It is, no doubt, an incon- 
ceivably pleasumble source of enjoyment. This 
increases the sublimity which there is in the 
silence of the dead, and its impressiveness. For 
what fancy can conceive of the communications, 
from heart to heart, in that multitude where 


12 * 


138 


CATHARINE. 


every new acquaintance is the occasion of 
some new joy, or wakes some thrilling recol- 
lection, or leads to some interesting discovery, 
and gives some fresh objects of love and praise! 
The land of silence surely extends no farther 
than to the gates of that heavenly city. All 
' is life and activity within ; but from that world, 
so populous with thoughts, and words, and 
songs, no revelation penetrates through the 
dark, silent land which lies between us and 
them. Our friends are there. Stars, so distant 
from us that their light, which began its travel 
ages since, has not reached us, are none the 
less worlds, performing their revolutions, and 
occupied by their busy population of intelli- 
gent spirits,* whose history is full of wonders. 
Yet the first ray denoting the existence of 
those worlds, has never met the eye of the 
astronomer in his incessant vigils. 

The silence of the departed, will, for each of 
us, soon, very soon, be interrupted. Entering, 
among breaking shadows and softly unfolding 
light, the border land, we shall gradually 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD, 


139 


awake to the opening vision of things unseen 
and eternal, all so kindly revealing themselves 
to our unaccustomed senses as to make us 
say, How beautiful ! ” and instead of exciting 
fear, leading us almost to hasten the hand 
which is removing the. veil. Some well-known 
voice, so long silent, may be the first to utter 
our name ; we are recognized, we are safe. A 
face, a dear, dear face, breaks forth amidst 
the crayoned lines of the dissolving night; a 
form — an embrace — assures us that faith has 
not deceived us, but has delivered us up to 
the objects hoped for, the things not seen. 0 
beatific moment! awaiting every follower of 
them who, by faith and patience, inherit the 
promises — dwellers there whither the Fore- 
runner is for us entered.” 

As we are soon to be utterly silent towards 
surviving friends, and the world in which we 
now live, we should use our speech as we 
shall wish we had done when we are silent 
in death. Any counsels, instructions, records, 


140 


CATHARINE. 


explanations, communications of any kind, 
which we would make, we should be diligent to 
perform. All the loving words, and tokens of 
affection, which we may suppose we shall here- 
after desire to communicate, we shall do well 
habitually to bear in mind and let them in- 
fluence our feelings and conduct, day by ‘day. 
In times of sickness, of separation, of absence, 
at happy returns, our feelings towards familiar 
friends and members of the family are such as 
might well be the standard, and pattern, of our 
general intercourse, especially when we think 
that the days will come when we shall highly 
prize and long for that intercourse, which now 
we have such opportunity to enrich with sweet 
and fragrant recollections, occasioning no pang 
of regret, nor sting. It is well to remember 
that, one day, we must part, and to let that 
anticipation intensify our love, and add charms 
to this daily companionship, which may soon 
appear to be a privilege which we did not 
sufficiently prize. 

The time will come, when, to many a beloved 


THE SILENCE OF THE*DEAD. 


141 


survivor, a word or sign, breaking the silence 
of the departed spirit, and giving some assur- 
ance that it is happy, would, perhaps, be the 
means of dispelling a life-long sorrow — would 
lift a crushing burden from the heart. The 
time to prepare that assurance, so that it shall 
come with most effectual power, is now, in 
days of health, when the evidences of our piety 
shall not be attainted by a suspicion of con- 
straint and insincerity, arising from late re- 
pentance and an apparently forced submission 
to God. Our recollections of a departed Chris- 
tian friend, of whose salvation his pious life 
makes us perfectly assured, come over us like 
the soft pulsations of a west wind in summer, 
laden with the sweets of a new-mown field; 
or like the clear, streaming moonlight in the 
brief interval between the broken clouds; or 
like remembered music, which some accidental 
word of a song has startled from its place 
and diffused through the soul. Thus departed 
Christian friends are the means of unspeakable 


142 


•CATHARINE. 


happiness to survivors; thus “their works do 
follow them;” and we should make large ac- 
count of this when we are weighing the ques- 
tion whether we will now, or in the closing 
hours of life, so fearfully uncertain, begin to 
love and serve God. 

The question which earth asks respecting 
one and another, “Where is he?” is no doubt 
repeated in heaven: Have you met him in 
any of these streets? Did you see him on 
yonder hills? Angels, returned from other 
happy worlds, have you heard of him ? Where 
is he? He is conscious, intelligent, receiving 
sensations from objects around him as vividly 
as ever. But, Where is he ? 

Of others, the question could be answered 
by ten thousand happy voices, “All is well.” 
With regard to many, the silence of the dead, 
forbidding our inquiries, is the only thing which, 
in any measure, composes the grief of friends. 
But as to our Christian friends, we have no 
more reason to inquire with sohcitude respect- 


THE SILENCE OP THE DEAD. 


143 


ing them than concerning the Saviour himself. 
“I go to prepare a place for you,” — “that 
where I am, there ye may be also.” The 
dying Christian may truly say to his friends, 
as the Saviour did to his: “Whithek I GO ye 

KNOW, AND THE WAY YE KNOW.*' 


V. 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 


What though my body run to dust ? 

Faith cleaves unto it, counting every grain 
With an exact and most particular trust, 

Reserving all for flesh again. 

George Herbert. 

It is good to think of Michael, the archangel, 
disputing with the devil about the body of 
Moses. The dispute was over a grave. The 
Most High had himself performed the funeral 
rites of his servant ; for, we read, “ The Lord 
buried him.” We naturally think of the arch- 
angel as placed in charge of the precious dust. 

Some great commission, connected with the 
resurrection of the dead, appears to be held 
by the chief spirit of the angelic world. “For 
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
and the trump of God.” The burial of each 

044 ) 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 14^ 

and every body which is destined to the reSiHr- 
rection of the just, is, therefore, not improbably 
an object of interest with him who, .wder the 
God-man, will have the supervision of the last 
day. With a view to that harvest of the 
earth, he will now see the furrows made, the 
seed planted, the hill prepared. He will have 
a care that every thing lies down, whether by 
seeming accident, or by violence, or by design, 
in just the place from which the arranging 
mind of Him who is Lord both of the dead and 
of the living, has appointed it to come forth. 
Every circumstance attending that event, the 
great object of Lope in heaven and on earth, — 
our resurrection, — is of sufficient importance 
to be the ■ subject of thought and preparation 
on the part of Christ, himself the first fruits of 
them that slept. 

The care of the patriarchs concerning their 
burial places is like one of those premonitions 
in an antecedent stratum of geology, or species 
of animals, of a eoming manifestation ; — a 
prophesying germ, a yearning, created by Him 

13 


146 


CATHARINE. 


who, with all-seeing wisdom, establishes antici- 
pations in the moral as well as in the natural 
world, concerning things with regard to which 
a thousand years are with him as one day. 

Not on earth alone, as it seems, is an inters 
est felt in the death and burial of the right- 
eous. 

For when the leader of Israel in the wilder- 
ness went up to the hill top to die, the two 
great angels of heaven and hell, met and con- 
tended over his grave. 

Denied the privilege of burial in the prom- 
ised land, Moses may have appeared to Satan 
so evidently under the frown of God, as to en- 
courage his meddlesome efforts to inflict some 
injury upon him, through dishonor done to his 
remains. Perhaps he would convey them back 
to Egypt, a gift to the brooding vengeance of 
the Pharaohs, who would gratify their anger by 
preserving that body in the house of their 
gods ; — thus showing their spiteful satisfaction 
at the disappointment of the prophet whom 
Jehovah would not permit to enter that prom- 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 147 


ised land in hope of which the great spoiler 
had led away the bondmen of Egypt. 

Perhaps the devil would gratify the desire 
‘of some idolatrous nation craving new objects 
of worship, by leading them to canonize this 
Hebrew chief ; and thus make of the lawgiver 
and prophet of Israel a false god. 

Perhaps he could even prevail on some of 
the Israelites themselves, if not the whole of 
them, to worship this revered form ; or might he 
but have the designation and the custody of his 
grave, he would, perhaps, fix it where it would 
be most convenient for the nation to assemble, 
at stated times, for some idolatrous rites. 

But the great vicegerent of the resurrection 
was there. To him the body of a saint is sug- 
gestive of the last day ; it is a special assign- 
ment by Christ, an official trust, to the arch- 
angel. Bodies of saints are, therefore, most 
precious to him. Particles of the precious 
metal are not more precious to the miner, 
pearls to the diver, ivory to the Coast-merchant, 
and the shell-fish to the maker of Tyrian 


148 


C iTH AEINE . 


purple. The body of each saint is an unfin- 
ished history of redemption ; a destiny of in- 
describable interest and importance belongs to 
it. Any subaltern angel may have charge of 
winds and seas, of day and night, of summer 
and winter ; but only the archangel is counted 
meet to have charge and to keep watch and 
ward over the bodies of saints as they sleep in 
Jesus. 

“ He disputed about the body of Moses.” It 
was a dispute characterized on the part of the 
archangel more by act than word. Words are 
hushed in great encounters. Debate with a 
pirate, a body-snatcher, would be folly; no 
arguments, therefore, were wasted, on the top 
of Nebo, by Michael, over the grave of Moses. 
“The Lord rebuke thee,” was his retort; his 
heavenly form stopping the way, his baffling 
right arm hindering the accursed design, were 
the invincible logic of that dispute. 

0 prince of angels, watchman, herald, master 
of the guard, at the resurrection of the just, — 
comptroller, now, of that treasury which re- 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 149 

ceives and keeps their precious forms, — from 
whose lips that signal is to come which mil- 
lions on millions are to hear, and live, — what 
images of glory and terror fill thy mind in the 
anticipation of that moment when thy dread 
commission is to be fulfilled ! Is not that 
trumpet ” sometimes taken into thy hand ? 
Dost thou not place it to thy lips, but quickly 
lay it aside, and patiently and joyfully watch 
the swelling number of the graves of saints ? 
Funerals of those who fall asleep in Jesus 
to thee are pleasant scenes ; they are spring- 
work, planting times, for thy harvest, 0 chief, 
reaper ! While, with bursting hearts, we turn 
from the new-made mound, one more glorified 
body, in anticipation, is added to thy charge. 

Smiling at our sorrow, in joyful thought of 
the change to be witnessed in and around that 
sepulchre when the family circle shall there 
put on incorruption, thou canst not pity us 
except as we pity the brief sorrows of chil- 
dren. If the devil should approach that spot 
to work some unknown, and, to us, incon- 


13 * 


150 


CATHARINE. 


ceivable, harm to that body, — be it the body 
of the humblest saint, one of those little ones 
who believe in Jesus, or of those infants whose 
angels do always behold the face of God, — 
thou, mighty cherub, wouldst be there, and, 
if need be, with a band of angels, “ every one 
with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear 
in the night;” and Nebo' and its “dispute” 
would reappear. Poor, dying, mouldering 
body ! hast thou the archangel himself for thy 
keeper ? Not only so : 

** God, my Redeemer, lives, 

And often from the skies 
Looks down and watches all my dust, 

Till he shall bid it rise.” 

Nor is it strange, since we read, “ The body 
is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 
"Know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the Holy Ghost which is in you ? ” 

To rise from the dead seems to have been 
something more to Paul than going to heaven, 
or than being in heaven. He knew that he 
was to spend the interval between death and 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 151 


the resurrection in heaven ; but beyond even 
this^ he had a joy which he felt was essential 
to the completeness of the heavenly state. 

See the proof of this in the following words : 
^^If by any means I might attain unto the 
resurrection of the dead.” 

Since he was destined, like all of Adam’s 
race, to come forth from his grave, he needed 
to make no effort whatever merely to rise from 
the dead ; that was inevitable, and irrespective 
of character. Besides, he represents this ob- 
ject for which he strove as something which 
required effort, which cannot be said of merely 
rising from the grave. 

Paul had been permitted to know, by per- 
sonal observation, what the rising from the 
dead implies. Caught up into Paradise, we 
may suppose that he had seen the patriarch 
Enoch, and the prophet Elijah, with their glori- 
fied bodies ; the presence of which in heaven, 
we may imagine, has ever served to enhance 
the happiness of that world, by holding forth 
before the eyes of the redeemed the sign and 


152 6ATaABINB. 

pledge of their future experience when they 
shall receive their bodies. For it is not pre- 
sumptuous to suppose that the sight of Enoch 
and Elijah has been, and will be, till the last 
trumpet sounds, a source of joyful expectation 
to the inhabitants of heaven, leading them to 
anticipate the final day with intense interest, 
as the time when they will be invested, like 
those honored saints, with all the capacities of 
their completed nature, which nature, while 
the body lies buried, is in a dissevered state. 
If Paul, when in heaven, saw and felt the 
power of this expectation in the minds of 
glorified saints, no wonder that the resurrec- 
tion of the body seemed to him, ever after, 
to be the crown of Christian expectation and 
hope. 

More than all, he had seen the man Christ 
Jesus, in his glorified body ; who on earth had 
said, “ I am the resurrection and the life ” — 
himself an illustration of it, whom alone the 
grave has yielded tip to die no more. He is, 
therefore, to saints in heaven, a far more inter- 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 153 


esting object than Enoch and Elijah^ who never 
died. ^^For now is Christ risen from the dead, 
and is become the first fruits of them that 
slept.'’ This . sight, of Christ in heaven, must 
have had unutterable interest for Paul, from 
the assurance that Christ will change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body ; " for we know that when he 
shall appear,” beloved John tells us, we shall 
be like him ; for we shall see him as he is.” 
Thus knowledge obtained in the heavenly 
world, may have led the apostle to think of the 
resurrection as the crown of all his expecta- 
tions and hopes. 

It is noticeable that the writers of the New 
Testament, and Jesus himself, refer chiefly to 
the resurrection and the last day as sources of 
comfort, and also of warning. Now this is made 
a principal ground of belief, with many, that 
there is either no consciousness between death 
and the resurrection ; or, that none have gone 
to heaven, nor to hell, but to intermediate 
places, seeing that final rewards and punish- 


154 


CATHARINE. 


ments are^ in so many instances, wholly predi- 
cated of the last day. 

But those who believe that the souls of the 
lighteous are, at their death, made perfect in ho- 
liness, and do immediately pass into glory, see 
proof, in all this prominence which is given to 
the last day, and to the resurrection, that the 
sacred writers regarded the resurrection and 
final judgment as the great consummation, 
towards which souls, in heaven and in hell, 
would be looking forward with intense expec- 
tation and interest; that neither will the joys 
of heaven nor the pains of hell be complete, 
till the account of our whole influence upon 
the world, extending to the end of time, is 
made up, and the body is added to the soul. 
When Paul comforts the mourners of Thessa- 
lonica, he bids them to sorrow not as they 
that have no hope ; for,” (and now he does 
not speak of heaven, and of souls being already 
there, as the source of consolation, but) if we 
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so 
them, also, that sleep in Jesus will God bring 


THE EEDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 155 


with him;” and he proceeds to speak of the 
resurrection^ — not of the speedy reunion of 
friends after deaths but of the departed as com- 
ing with Christ at the last day. This^, instead 
of being an argument against the immediate 
departure of souls to heaven^ arises from the 
desire to employ the strongest possible proof 
that the pious dead are not only safe^ but 
are greatly honored. Eesurrection ” was an 
abounding subject of thought, argument, and 
illustration in those days; the state of the 
dead between death and the last day, is com- 
paratively disregarded by the apostles, while 
their minds were full of the great question of 
the age — the Kesurrection. This fulness of 
thought and constant occupation of mind about 
the resurrection, as the cardinal doctrine of 
Christian hope, explains the apparent belief of 
the apostles, in some passages, that the final 
day was near. This the apostle Paul expressly 
denies, in the second chapter of the Second 
Epistle to the Thessalonians. But a greater 
event, looked at in the same line of vision with 


156 


C ATHAPISTB, 


an intermediate and smaller object, will, of 
course, have the prominent place in oui 
thoughts. The less will be held subordinate to 
the greater ; perhaps we shall seem to under- 
rate the less, in our exalted conceptions of that 
which rises beyond and above. We shall see, 
as we proceed, why the expectation of the last 
day seemed to occupy the thoughts of apostles 
as the paramount object of expectation. 

It is perfectly obvious that, at the resurrec- 
tion, the bodies of the just will be endued with 
wonderful susceptibilities and powers. This is 
rendered certain by the great mystery of godli- 
ness, — God manifest in the flesh. The greatest 
honor which could be conferred upon our na- 
ture, and the greatest testimony to its intrinsic 
dignity, and to its being, in its unfallen state, 
in the image of God, is bestowed upon it by 
the incarnation of the Word. True, there was 
a necessity that the Redeemer shorfld be made . 
like unto us, however inferior human nature 
might be in the scale of creation ; still, unless 
there had been such intrinsic dignity and 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 157 

excellence in our sinless nature as to make it 
compatible for the second Person in the God- 
head to be united with it^ we cannot suppose 
that this union would have been permanent; 
it would have fulfilled a temporary purpose^ 
and then have ceased. 

Perhaps we slightly err if we think oi 
Christ’s assumption of human nature as, in any 
respect, an incongruous act of humiliation. 
For man was made in the image of God ; so 
that when Christ was made flesh, without sin, 
he took upon himself that which, in some 
sense, was congruous with his divine nature. 
His humiliation consisted, in part, in his doing 
this ; but more especially in his doing this for 
such a purpose — for sinners ; in his being 
born, and that in a low condition, made under 
the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, 
the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the 
cross, in being buried and continuing under 
the power of death for a time.” Had there 
been no inherent congruity between our na- 
ture and the divine, the human nature of 


14 


158 


CATHARINE. 


Christ, having accomplished its purpose of 
suffering and death, would have been left in 
the grave. “ But now is Christ risen from 
the dead ; ” the body and the human soul, 
which were disunited when he hung upon the 
cross, now constitute the same man, Christ 
Jesus. “ The only Redeemer of God’s elect is 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal 
Son of God, became man, and so was, and con- 
tinues to be, God and man, in two distinct 
natures and one person, forever.” The latter 
part of this answer of the Assembly’s Shorter 
Catechism is thus substantiated by the New 
Testament: “When he shall appear, we shall 
be like him ; for we shall see him as he is.” In 
other words, he will be, when he appears, 
that which he now is — will remain the same 
until his second coming. After that, he will 
remain as he was before: “Jesus Christ, the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” He is 
represented as holding an eternal relation to 
the redeemed in his glorified nature : “ The 
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 


THE EEDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 159 


feed them, and shall lead them nnto living foun- 
tains of waters.” We might, indeed, suppose 
that the man Christ Jesus would have an eter- 
nal recompense for his sufferings and death in 
an everlasting union with the Godhead ; nor can 
any one think, with satisfaction, of a severance 
between his two natures, and of a consequent 
humiliation, or deposition, of that human na- 
ture, which, at the great day, will, for so long 
a time, have sustained such a connection with 
the divine nature. For our present purpose, 
however, which is to show the intrinsic dignity 
of the human nature, it would be enough that 
it has been in such connection with the God- 
head, and has passed through such scenes, and 
sustained such vast responsibilities. This is suf- 
ficient to prove that human nature is intrinsi- 
cally capable and great ; and, indeed, it reveals 
to us as nothing else does, the real dignity 
of our nature. Some, who have rejected the 
doctrine of 'Christ’s two natures, have written 
much and eloquently with regard to man’s 
greatness in creation. They, however, missed 


160 


CATHARINE. 


the very thing which chiefly proves it ; for all 
who believe in the Deity of Christ have a proof 
and illustration of this great theme which tran- 
cend all others. 

This idea, of future capability and exaltation 
for human nature, as proved by the Saviour’s 
incarnation, is brought to view in the second 
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The 
second Psalm is there quoted as speaking of 
man : “ Thou hast put all things under his 
feet.” “But now,” the apostle says, “we see 
not yet all things put under him man, as a 
race, has not reached his full destiny of glory 
and honor; but, in the person of Christ, human 
nature has taken possession of its future in- 
heritance. We see not yet all things put 
under man, as a race ; but “ we see Jesus, who 
was made a little lower than the angels for 
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honor ; ” — a sign and pledge of our destiny. 

To the mind of Paul, the sight, in heaven, of 
what he was to become, set forth by the glori- 
fied person of the Son of , God, his Saviour and 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 161 


infinite Friend, no doubt made the resumption 
of the body at the last day the most desirable 
experience of which it was possible for him to 
conceive. Paradise, with all its social pleas- 
ures, gates of pearl, streets of gold, every thing, 
in short, external to him, must have seemed to 
the apostle not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which was to be revealed in him. 
An intelligent man is far more interested 
in his own personal endowments, than in 
the accidental circumstances of his situation. 
Every one, who is not degraded in his feel- 
ings would prefer to be enriched with natural, 
moral, and intellectual powers, rather than be 
the richest of men, or an hereditary monarch, 
with inferior talents and worth. To such a man 
as Paul, the possession of his complete, glorified 
nature, at the resurrection, must, for this rea- 
son, have seemed far better than all the pleas- 
ures or honors of the heavenly world. That 
completed nature would constitute him a being 
wholly perfected, invest him wdth a likeness to 
the Son of God, bring him into still nearer 

14 * 


162 


CATHAEtNB. 


union with that adorable Redeemer, who, Paul 
gays, loved him and gave himself for him, and 
for whom, he says, he had sulfered the loss of 
all things. The sight of the man Christ Jesus 
wearing Paul’s nature in a glorified state, no 
doubt lived and glowed in his memory after 
his return to earth, and made him think of the 
resurrection as the event, in his personal his- 
tory, to which every thing else was subor- 
dinate. He shows the interest which he felt 
in this event, when, writing to the Romans, 
he says, “ And not only they,” — that is, “ the 
creatures,” or creation, — “ but ourselves, also, 
which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even 
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting 
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption, of our 
body.” In his address at Jerusalem before 
his accusers and the people, he cried out, " Of 
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am 
called in question.” It was uniformly a prom- 
inent topic of his thoughts. 

It is by no means impossible, nor improb- 
able, judging from analogy, that there may be 


THE REDEMPTION. OP THE BODY. 163 


in the human soul faculties which are slum- 
bering, until a glorified body assists in thmr 
development. Persons born blind have the 
dormant faculty of seeing ; the gift of the eye 
would bring it into exercise. So of the other 
senses, and their related mental faculties. 
With a glorified body, then, truly it doth not 
yet appear what we shall be ; but the thought 
itself is rapture, that our souls at present may 
be as disproportioned to their future expan- 
sion, as the acorn is to the oak of a century’s 
growth, which is infolded now, and dormant, 
in the seed. 

The addition of a body to the glorified spirit 
will, therefore, be a help, and not an encum- 
brance. For we are not to suppose that the 
soul, after having been for centuries in a state 
superior to its present condition, would retro- 
grade in returning to the body. A common 
idea respecting a body is, that it is necessarily 
a clog. True, by reason of sin and its effects, 
it is now a “ vile body ; ” and Paul speaks of 
it as "the body of this death.” But, even 


164 


CATHARINE. 


while we are in this world, a body is an indis- 
pensable help to the soul. The disembodied 
spirit, probably, is not capable of sustaining a 
full, active relation to a world of matter ; a ma- 
terial form is necessary to make its powers ser- 
viceable here. This being so, there is certainly 
reason, from analogy, to suppose that the addi- 
tion of a spiritual body to the glorified soul 
will not necessarily work any deterioration to 
the spirit. At all events, we cannot suppose 
that the bliss of heaven will be suflfered to 
diminish by remanding the emancipated spirit 
into connection with any thing which will sub- 
tract from the state to which it will have 
arrived. There is a law of progress in the 
divine government, by which the intelligent 
universe will be forever advancing. We are 
to be changed “from glory to glory; ” not from 
a greater glory to a less, but into the same 
image with Christ. 

It is the opinion of some that every created 
being has a corporeal part, and that God alone 
is perfectly a spirit. However this may be, it 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 165 


is evident that the souls of believers after 
death, though advanced far beyond their pres- 
ent earthly condition, and though they are 
“with Christ,” and though to die is gain, and 
though they are in the heaven of heavens with 
Christ, (which is where the penitent thief went, 
and where Paul had his revelation, and where 
Christ went when he died ; — for Paul uses the 
words “ third heavens,” and “ Paradise,” inter- 
changeably,) are, nevertheless, incomplete as to 
their natures, “waiting for the adoption, to 
wit, the redemption of our body.” Where in 
the Bible are we led to suppose that they are 
detained in an inferior region, or that there are, 
at most, only two redeemed human beings now 
in “ heaven,” viz., Enoch and Elijah, or probably 
not even they ? But a corporeal part, we may 
suppose, is necessary to the fullest participation 
in the employments and enjoyments of the 
spiritual world. Light requires atmosphere to 
modify it for the human eye, which otherwise 
could not endure its brightness. So it may be 
that a corporeal part is necessary to modify 


166 


CATHARINE. 


many of the things which are unseen and 
eternal, that they may be apprehended by the 
soul. Let no one say that matter must obstruct 
or dim the senses of the soul; that a body 
must act as a veil to the spirit, and shut out 
much knowledge. It is not so here. Matter 
helps us in the acquisition of knowledge, as, 
for example, glass in optical instruments. The 
telescope, with its lenses, gives the eye vast 
compass; the microscope gives it a power, 
equally wonderful, of minute vision. True, in 
these cases it is matter helping matter — glass 
assisting the eye ; the analogy is not perfect 
between this and the aid which the spiritual 
body may afford the soul. But, if we remem- 
ber that there is to be progression in the powers 
and faculties of our nature, and that if a body 
is added to the glorified spirit, it must be to 
assist it, to put it forward in its acquisitions 
and enjoyments, we cannot resist the belief 
that the addition of the new body to the soul 
will be a vast accession of pow'er and capa- 
bility. If the eye and the mind can receive 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 167 


such aid from the telescope here, who knows 
that the eye of the glorified body may not be 
itself a telescope, increasing in its capability 
with the progress of its being. 

We may have some view of what the glori- 
fied body must necessarily be, in thinking of it 
as a fit companion to the glorified spirit. The 
soul having been in heaven for ages, and hav- 
ing grown in all spiritual excellence, the body, 
to be a help to such a spirit, to be an occasion 
of joy, and not of regret, must, of course, be 
in advance of our present corporeal nature. 
What must the body of Isaiah, and of David, 
be, at the resurrection, to correspond with the 
vast powers and attainments of those glorified 
spirits ? We could not believe, certainly we 
could not see, how these bodies of ours could 
be made capable of such union, were it not 
that, in the man Christ Jesus, we see our cor- 
poreal nature capable of such transformation 
as to make it compatible for his human mind 
and indwelling Deity to receive it into their 
ineffable union. 


168 


CATHARINE. 


All this being so, we may, in some measure, 
conceive of the feelings with which the souls 
in heaven anticipate the resurrection; and we 
cease to wonder why Paul speaks of his resur- 
rection as the great object of his desire — not 
merely to be in heaven, but, being in heaven, 
with Christ, to be in possession of a completed 
nature, like Christ’s. 

From the grave where it was sown in cor- 
ruption, it will come forth in incorruption; 
sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glorj'^; 
sown in weakness, it will be raised in power ; 
sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual 
body. It was “ bare grain ” when it fell into 
the earth; but the corn, with its stalk, and 
leaves, and the curious ear, with its silk, and 
its wrappings, the multiplication of the “ bare 
grain” into such a product, are an illustration of 
the apostle’s words, — “ Thou sowest not that 
body that shall be ; ” hence, he argues, say not, 
incredulously, " How are the dead raised, and 
with what body do they come ? ” God giveth 
the grain a body as it hath pleased him ; he 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 169 

can do the same with regard to that part of 
man’s nature which is committed for a while 
to the earth. Let not the natural difficulties 
connected with this subject make us sceptical. 
There are no more difficulties connected with 
a grave than with a grape vine. Those distant 
twigs^ on that dry vine^ begin to bud and blos- 
som ; grapes form upon them ; it is filled with 
clusters. Is there any thing in the resurrection 
more strange than this? Twice, inspiration 
says to a man, Thou fool ! ” — once, to a god- 
less, rich man, and once to him who is sceptical 
about the resurrection of the body. 

When the glorified spirit and the glorified 
body meet, the moment when the investiture 
of the soul with its spiritual form takes place, 
and the forcible divorce of the soul and body 
is terminated by new, strange nuptials, there 
must be an experience which now defies all 
power of imagination. We may have known, 
in this world, all the thrilling experiences of 
which our natures here are capable ; we shall 
also have seen and felt what it is to awake in 


15 


170 


CATH ABINE. 


heaven^ satisfied with Christ’s likeness; and all 
the new-born joys of heavenly sensations will 
have seemed to leave us nothing to be experi- 
enced which can bring a new rapture to the 
heart ; yet when the body is raised, and the 
triumphant spirit comes to put it on afresh, it 
will be an addition to all the past joys of the 
heavenly state. As we look on one another, 
and see, in each other’s beauty and glory, an 
image of our own ; as we remember how we 
visited the graves of loved ones, and what 
thoughts and feelings we had there, and then 
see those graves yielding forms like Christ’s; 
as we see the Saviour’s person mirrored in 
ours on every side, and behold the living 
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
there will be an exceeding great joy, such, per- 
haps, as the universe had never before known. 
But to each of us the most perfect joy will be 
his own consciousness, existence being then a 
rapture such as we never experienced. Then 
the bird is winged, the jewel is set in gold, the 
flower blooms, the harp receives all her strings. 


THE EEDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 171 


the heir is crowned. No wonder that Paul 
said, looking through and beyond heaven, “If 
by any means I might attain unto the res- 
urrection of the dead.” 

Perhaps we now think of the last day with 
dread, as a day of consternation. It is not 
always that we can think of the heavens on 
fire, the earth dissolved, the dead arising, and 
the judgment proceeding, without some feeling 
of dismay. But in heaven, we shall long have 
anticipated that day as the day of our complete 
triumph. The grave will, till that time, have 
imprisoned one part of our nature. The curse 
of the law will not have passed away entirely 
and in every respect, till all which belongs to 
us is redeemed from every natural, as well as 
moral, consequence of sin. It will be an ex- 
pectation of unmingled joy to see this accom- 
plished. The approach of the day will fill us 
with more pleasure than the arrival of any 
other wished-for moment. We shall come 
with Christ to judgment. “Them that sleep 
in Jesus will God bring with him.” We shall 


172 


CATHARINE. 


have a part in the glory of Christ, and be asso- 
ciated with him ; for, " Do ye not know that the 
saints shall judge the world?” “Know ye not 
that we shall judge angels?” What curious 
interest there will be to receive back from the 
dust of the earth the dishonored, corrupted, 
mouldered, wasted, perished body. In the Sa- 
viour, even, we shall not have seen all the won- 
ders of the resurrection from the dead ; for, “He 
whom God raised saw no corruption ; ” but we 
shall be raised from corruption. To be clothed 
upon with that house which is from heaven, 
to be a completed, perfected human being, will 
be, up to that time, the greatest possible mani- 
festation to us of divine wisdom and power. 

The new body will bring with it sources of 
enjoyment which wdl be a vast addition to the 
previous happiness of heaven. There will be 
perfect satisfaction in every one with his own 
body — no consciousness of defects, of deform- 
ity, of weakness. Comparisons of ourselves 
with others will not excite dissatisfaction and 
envy; every one will be perfect of his kind. 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 173 


and will differ in some things from every other, 
and will be an object of love and admiration 
with all. We are astonished here with the 
intellectual, oratorical, vocal powers of others, 
with their knowledge, their talent, their skill ; 
but there we shall no doubt be filled also with 
astonishment at our own powers and acqui- 
sitions, and thus we shall be more capable of 
appreciating and enjoying the endowments of 
others. God is pleased to raise up one and 
another, from time to time, with great powers 
to charm their fellow-creatures ; and thus he 
would lure us on to heaven, teaching us how 
much we can enjoy, and how much we shall 
lose if we are not saved. Those who are 
deprived of very many intellectual and social 
pleasures here, which they could appreciate as 
well as their more favored friends, will soon 
have it made up to them. By the likeness of 
their glorified nature to the human nature 
of Christ, they are to be intimately associated 
with him forever. This, of itself, is an assur- 
ance and pledge, that their heavenly happiness 


174 


CATHARINE. 


will not be measured by their relative infe- 
riority to their brethren in this world. To a 
benevolent mind it is a great joy to think of 
good people, who are deprived, in this world, of 
education and culture, entering upon a career 
of boundless knowledge, rising to the highest 
pitch of mental development, and enjoying it 
all the more for their former disadvantages in 
their probationary state. And, behold, there 
are last which shall be first.” Distinctions 
made here by knowledge will be transient, 
like gifts of prophecy, and tongues; for it is in 
this sense that it is said, whether there be 
knowledge, it shall vanish away.” And when 
we look upon those dear children of God who 
have long suffered under bodily deformity, 
and have* borne, and have had patience, and 
have not fainted,” we love to think of their 
glorified bodies, and of that rich zest in the 
possession of them which will be both the 
natural consequence, and the gracious reward, 
of their patience ; nay, we love to think that 
some special, personal beauty, some peculiar 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 175 


grace and glory^ may be given them by Him 
who so delights in compensatory acts in na- 
ture^ in providence^ and in grace. 

Was it not the object of the transfiguration, 
in part, to give the human soul of Christ such 
an idea of his future glory in heaven, as 
to strengthen him for his agony and death? 
Yes- for the heavenly visitants spake of his 
decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- 
salem.” That anticipation of his glorified na- 
ture was a part of the joy set before him.” 
Let Christ on Tabor, and faith, do for us with 
regard to present bodily sorrows and suffer- 
ings that which the transfiguration did for 
Jesus in the days of his humiliation. ^^Who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be 
fashioned like unto his glorious body, accord- 
ing to the working whereby he is able even to 
subdue all things unto himself” 

Through the long interval of death and the 
separate state, the anticipation of the last day 
and of the resurrection will, no doubt, be to 
the wicked a predominant source of terror. 


176 


C ATHAEINE. 


While the joyful anticipations of it^ in heaven^ 
will be like the advancing steps of morning, 
when there begin to be signs, in the tabernacle 
for the sun, of that bridegroom coming out of 
his chamber, and of that strong man rejoicing 
to run a race, and every thing will be astir 
with the notes of preparation for that day for 
which all other days were made, the approach 
of it will be, to the lost, a deepening gloom, 
its arrival the settling down of interminable 
night. Instead of entering into their bodies 
with transport, as the righteous do, they will 
each be like a prisoner removed from one jail 
to another with new bars and bolts. If it be 
not unreasonable to suppose that the appear- 
ance of the body will conform to the character, 
and if the bodies of Isaiah, and Paul, and John 
must be seraphic, to correspond with their 
experience and attainments, what must the 
bodies of the wicked be ! They will have spent 
centuries in sinning, and suffering, debased in 
every part, the image of God supplanted by 
the image of him whose service they preferred 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 177 

to that of a holy God and Saviour. What a 
moment will 4hat be when the sinner’s grave 
is opened by the last trumpet^ and a hideous 
form rises to receive a frantic spirit ! The 
harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers 
are the angels.” As, therefore, the tares are 
gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be 
in the end of this world. The Son of man 
shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that 
offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall 
cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth.” And many 
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and 
some to shame and everlasting contempt.” 
There will be separations at the graves of 
those who lay side by side in death ; many a 
tomb will yield up subjects both for heaven 
and for hell ; the differences in character be- 
tween the regenerate and unregenerate, will 
there be made conspicuous in the correspond- 
ence of the risen body to the soul, according as 


178 


GATH AKIN B. 


the soul shall have arrived at the grave from a 
state of joy or of woe. Arrests will be made, 
there will be forcible detentions, overpowering 
strength, disregard of entreaties, remorseless 
rendings asunder of families, unclasping of em^ 
braces, and an indiscriminate mixture of all 
classes among the wicked, indicated by the 
command, “ Bind ye the tares together in bum 
dies to be burned.” Nor will this be worse 
for holy angels to witness, than it was to see 
those sinners turn their backs on the Lord’s 
supper, year after year. They could treat 
their Saviour’s dying agonies, and his blood, 
with perfect neglect and contempt, through 
their love of the world and sin; now they 
eat the fruit of their own way, and are fiUed 
with their own devices. Our treatment of 
the Saviour will return upon our own heads. 
What a change will be made in the ideas 
which many sentimentalists had of holy angels, 
when they see them executing the terrible or- 
ders of their King ! and what an illustration it 
will give of the severity of justice, — the rigors 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 179 


of its execution being compatible with the 
pure benevolence of holy angels, because of 
God. We are constantly admonished that the 
punishment of the wicked will be a great part 
of the proceedings on that day. It is called 
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men.” ‘‘Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten 
thousands of his saints, to execute judgment.” 

All this serves to invest the death of a dear 
Christian friend, in our thoughts, with inex- 
pressible peace and comfort. He, with his 
Kedeemer, can say, “ My flesh, also, shall rest 
in hope.” If we are confident that a friend is 
gone to be with Christ, death is, even now, 
swallowed up of life ; and now the thought of 
what the soul is to inherit, both before and 
after the resurrection, and its contrast with the 
experience of the lost, should make us joyful 
in tribulation. True, we cannot, by any arti- 
fice or illusion, make death itself cease to be a 
curse. Full of beauty and consolation as it may 
be, : — nay, we will call it triumphant, yet 


180 


CATHABINE. 


nothing saddens the mind, for the time, more 
than the sight of true beauty. In heaven 
things beautiful will not make us sad ; nor will 
the remembrance of a past joy, which so in- 
evitably has that effect upon us here. We are 
beholding a sunset. Day is flinging up all its 
treasures, as though it were breaking to pieces 
its pavilion forever and scattering -the frag- 
ments ; and now, when all seemed past, one 
more flood of glory streams over the scene, 
but only for a moment ; then comes a last 
touch of pathos, here and there, like a more 
distant farewell, a whispered good night. Have 
tears never come unbidden, do we never feel 
sad, at such a time ? Is not the whole of life, 
past, present, and to come, then tinged with 
sombre hues? and all because the dying day 
expires with such beauty and peace. Not so 
when a storm suddenly brings in night upon 
us. Then we are nerved and braced ; we hear 
no minor key in the voice of the departing 
day. It is perfectly natural, therefore, to weep 
over our dead, even when every thing in their 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 181 


departure is consolatory and beautiful. It is in- 
teresting to observe that it was even when he 
was on his way to raise the dead body of his 
friend, and thus to comfort the weeping sisters, 
that “ Jesus wept.” 

Let us more and more love the Christian’s 
grave. Angels love it. Two of them sat in 
the tomb where the body of Jesus had lain — 
they loosed the napkin that was about his 
head, and “ wrapped ” it “ together in a place 
by itself ; ” and when Jesus had left the place, 
instead of following him, they lingered, to com- 
fort the weeping friends on their arrival at the 
sepulchre. Can it be Michael, guardian of the 
dead Moses and his grave, on " the great 
stone ” which has been rolled “ from the door 
of the sepulchre ” ? Is he thinking how he 
will one day hear the command, “Take ye 
away the stone ” which covers all who sleep in 
Jesus ? As the cross is hallowed by the death 
of the Son of God upon it, the grave is hal- 
lowed for the believer through the Saviour’s 

burial. There are three places which must 
16 


182 


C ATHABINEi 


possess intense interest for a glorified friend 
One is his home ; another is his seat in the 
house of God ; and another is his grave* Let 
us cherish it. We do well to visit such a spot. 
Sometimes approaching it with sadness an3 
fear, we go away with sin-prising peace | look- 
ing back for a last view of the stone, and feel- 
ing towards the spot as we do when we are leav- 
ing little children in the dark for the night, un- 
utterable love, we find, has cast out fear. Those 
graves are treasures which heaven has made 
sure, “ sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” 
Of those who still live, we are not certain that, 
in the providence of God, they will henceforth 
be an unmingled source of comfort; but they 
who are in those graves are garnered fruits, are 
finished works, are each like the rod of Aaron 
laid up in the ark, which “ bloomed blossoms 
and yielded almonds.” All else which is dear 
to us on earth may seem changeful, or changed ; 
the property may have disappeared, the home 
may have been broken up, the plighted faith 
and love may have been recalled ; the whole 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 183 


condition of life may have been altered : but 
we visit that burial spot^ and there is perma- 
nence ; that fast-anchored isle has • defied the 
surges and roaring currents ; the grave seems 
beautifully constant; it has not betrayed our con- 
fidence ; it is not weary of its precioiis charge ; 
it has kindly staid behind to permit and en- 
courage our griefs when all else may have fled. 
The winter’s snows have fallen, the tempests 
have beaten, there ; and now, this April or May 
morning, it is as steadfast and quiet as when 
the slumber there began. 

Great honor is paid to the dead in giving 
them precedence to the living at the last day. 

The dead in Christ shall rise first,” that is, be- 
fore the living are changed ; — they shall rise, 
and after that, in a moment, in a twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trumpet, the living will be 
transformed ; for the trumpet shall sound, and 
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we 
shall be changed. This is said in order to 
comfort those who mourn the death of Chris- 
tian friends, — intimating such care on the part 


184 


CATHARINE. 


of their Eedeemer, that the apostle is directed 
to tell us by the word of the Lord^ that we 
which are alive, and remain to the coming of 
the Lord, shall not”' have precedence of ‘Hhem 
that are asleep.” It is declared that the change 
of the living will be effected in a moment, 
in the twinkling of an eye.” This must be a 
matter of pure revelation ; for it could not 
have been foretold, from any apparent proba- 
bilities, whether it 'would happen instantane- 
ously or by degrees. It is suited to impress 
the mind with the power and majesty of Christ, 
inasmuch as this is to be one of the great acts 
connected with his second coming, and as really 
an exercise of his omnipotence as the raising 
of the dead. For he is Lord both of the dead 
and of the living.” 

^^And the sea shall give up the dead that 
are in it.” Many a form of a believer is wait- 
ing there for the redemption of the body. Nor 
has it escaped the eye of the great archangel. 
Wrapped in its rude shroud, or decomposed 
and scattered, or in whatever way seemingly 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 185 


annihilated, personal identity still attaches to 
it, and the all-seeing eye watches every thing 
which is essential to that identity, as easily as 
though the body were in the grave with kin- 
dred dust. That the power of God in the res- 
urrection may be fully illustrated, and that 
some may be preeminent witnesses in their 
own persons of that mighty power, perhaps it 
will appear that they were permitted, for that 
purpose, to be devoured or to dissolve and to 
waste away in the sea. If they who came 
out of great tribulation are arrayed in white 
robes among the righteous, we may look for 
some special sign of glory and joy in those 
who receive their bodies, not from the shelter- 
ing grave, but from the sea, and from the very 
frame of nature into which their bodily organ- 
ization will, in one way and another, have been 
incorporated. 0 the unspeakable wonders and 
raptures connected with the resurrection, both 
as it relates to our own experience, and to the 
illustrations which the resurrection will afford, 

of the divine wisdom and power. No wonder, 
16 * 


186 


CATHARINE. 


we sajj that Paul esteemed it the height of 
Christian privilege, that he, as a redeemed hu- 
man being, “ might attain unto the resurrection 
of the dead.” 

It is an innocent fancy, if it be not worthy 
of a better name, that the great attention 
which has been given of late years to new 
cemeteries, now in such contrast to the old 
graveyards, whose reckless disorder so per- 
fectly expressed abancfonment to sorrow and 
unresisting surrender to the last enemy, is a 
symptomatic token of growing faith in the 
great, general heart of the christianized part 
of the race, with regard to that consummation 
of all things, the resurrection of the dead. 

As at sea there is, within certain degrees of 
latitude and longitude, an uphill and a down- 
hill, made by the convexity of the globe, we, 
perhaps, may have reached the meridian of the 
great voyage, and may have begun to feel the 
inclination which will set us forward more 
swiftly to the end. The power of the great 
consummation will be waxing stronger and 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY, 187 


stronger. Men are looking to the cemeteries 
as places where great treasures went down, or 
were abandoned, and they begin to think that 
some great restoration awaits them. These 
costly and beautiful cemeteries, which men are 
preparing, are like Hiram’s contributions to 
the building of the temple ; they foretell some 
great thing ; they have a look not only of ex- 
pectation, but of design, not merely of faith, 
but of hope. With a truly liberal regard to the 
decoration of those burial places with costly 
works of general interest, in the department of 
art, we shall do well to make provision, by 
statute, for the perpetual repair and preserva- 
tion of every enclosure, and every grave, the 
whole body corporate thus pledging itself, as 
far as possible, to each incumbent, that his last 
resting place shall be the care of the perpetu- 
ated fraternity to the end of time. 

And when the prophecies are accomplished, 
and the stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands has filled the earth, and the apostasy 
which is to follow the general prevalence of 


188 


CATHARINE. 


religion, has deluged the world with blood, 
and Satan, loosed a little season, is triumph- 
ing in his maddened career, and the graves are 
full, and the souls under the altar, with their 
importunate cry, can no longer wait for the 
avenging arm, — then shall be seen the sign 
of the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
heaven, with power and great glory. 

As we commit a Christian friend to the earth, 
and as we visit his resting place, let us think 
that now the anticipation of the rising from 
the dead is, to him, the great object of personal 
expectation and -hope. The time is not far 
distant, when, in heaven, we, in like manner, 
shall be filled with that expectation, as we look 
down upon the places where our bodies await 
the signal of the resurrection. 

Let not the image of our friends as sick and 
in pain, occupy our thoughts. “ For the former 
things are passed away.” Their language, as 
they call back to us, is, “As dying, and be- 
hold, we live.” 

We who have children and friends that sleep 


THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 189 


in Jesus, and who expect ourselves to be, with 
them, and with one another, children of the 
resurrection, will soon know each other in the 
presence of Christ. We shall have become 
reunited in the presence of each other to our 
loved and lost ones. The great question then 
will be. How did we fulfil God’s special and 
benevolent designs in our trials ? If we revisit 
scenes of deep affliction where death and the 
grave usurped their dread power over us for 
a season, we shall remember our misery as 
waters that pass away. In hope of this, we 
will patiently and joyfully labor and suffer. 
“ The night is far spent the day is at hand.” 


On a pleasant morning in April, three 
months from the time of her decease, the mor- 
tal part of the dear child whose name gives 
this book its title, was removed from its tem- 
porary resting place in the city, to her grave 
in the family cemetery. As the hands of her 


190 


CATHARINE. 


father, which baptized her, laid her to rest in 
her sweet and peaceful bed, and the simple 
stone, with her chosen “ lilies of the valley and 
rose buds” carved on it, was set up, — the gift 
of one whose consanguinity was made by him 
the delicate ground of claim to do this touch- 
ing and abiding act of love, — it seemed as 
though, in some sense, there had already been 
brought to pass the saying which is written, 
“ Death is swallowed up in victory.” 

But in the night a gentle April shower fell ; 
and as the thoughts were carried by it, spell- 
bound, from the chamber where she was born, 
to her newly-made grave, — that night being 
the first of her sleeping there, — it seemed 
very plain that, though Death had been con- 
quered, the Grave still kept possession of the 
field. — Christ ‘^will be thy destruction,” 0 
Grave, as he has been “ thy plagues,” 0 Death ! 
The early rain seemed to have made good 
haste in visiting the fresh mound and the 
flower seeds already placed there, conspiring 
with them to cover the grave speedily with 


THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 191 


emblems of the resurrection, as though, with 
confident boast and exultation, they would, 
beforehand, say, Where is thy victory?” 
Simple thoughts and fancies, which we hardly 
dare utter, have wonderful power, in great 
sorrows, to change the whole current of the 
feelings; for while that soft shower was heard, 
falling on the grave, it seemed as if a heavenly 
watcher was in care of the place ; and so? leav- 
ing them together, it was easy and pleasant to 
fall asleep. 

And now, seeing that there is not one ex- 
perience in this volume which is not, or may 
not be, enjoyed, and surpassed, by every dying 
saint, and by surviving friends, and as the 
narrative is thus saved from all just thought 
either of ostentation, or of setting forth a* 
discouraging standard of experience, may the 
book find protection from those who, know- 
ing the innocent weaknesses, and, at the same 
time, the blessedness, of those who mourn, will 
kindly appreciate the motives with which it is 


192 


CATHARINE. 


written. For more than a year the narrative 
has been laid by, from indefinable reluctance 
at the thought of publication. But this afflic- 
tion which was at first like the bulb of the 
hyacinth with its white, pendulous roots in 
water, — those symbols of hope and pledges of 
growth, — has now bloomed and become fra- 
grant with such comforts and consolations, that 
we venture to set the plant in our window, 
perchance it may meet the eye of one and 
another as they walk and are sad. Perhaps it 
may, here and there, win love and praise for 
Jesus. “He hath done all things well.” 






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